Lightning Always Strikes
by Sweet Kagamine Kiss
Summary: Ever heard of that term lightning will always strike twice? For Lightning she always does and just as swiftly. But now she's doing her future fights as a reincarnated boy wizard with emerald eyes and a famously-known lightning-shaped scar. But is she living a brand new life, or is her reincarnation more than meets the eye?
1. Chapter 1

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

**Author's Note:** This originally was going to be in The Storybook of Hogwarts, but considering the fact that not many check it out... I decide to make this a separate fic. Not to be taken seriously, but at the same time I can't help but try and make this somewhat humorous. Although, there will be some points of seriousness in the plotline. It's going to be a bit of a semi-flash forward style story, going through some of Lightning's years at Hogwarts, with some focus on "important events".

* * *

Lightning stared at himself in the mirror the early morning of September 1st. His now emerald-tint eyes stare back, no longer their blue variety that put the fear into many an enemy. And his once unkempt dark hair had turned into the same shade of light pink and straightened down around his sixth birthday. And it took Lightning awhile to fully call himself a male (sometimes he still wished he was reborn a female).

Even if reincarnation is dodgy in some aspects; the former woman knew that her/his reincarnation was not a random thing. For some reason, it was foreseen. After those deadly events with the paradoxes in time and space resolved, and the new world that was Nova Chrysalia saved from Armageddon in a mere thirteen days, she/he found himself/herself staring into the eyes of a beautiful woman with green eyes and vibrant red hair, a man with unkempt dark hair and brown eyes, and both adults were cooing.

It did not take a genius to realize that she, Lightning Farron, was reincarnated. Then here comes the crap where James and Lily are murdered, the idiot that tried to kill him died instead, and then living a life of misery and torment under the so-called "loving relatives". If Harry Potter was not a reincarnated soul of a Goddess-touched warrior, Harry Potter would have been cowed and likely submissive by the abuse put upon his shoulders and heart. As Lightning Farron however, Lightning took this as a new chance to live although it still pained him that his sister Serah would be a darling memory. Lightning did not accept the abuse. He was tough. He was infallible (sometimes). Lightning Farron re-trained the new body back to conditioned peak and form.

Lightning also learned that in his new reincarnation, he had access to l'Cie magic, but without the whole Cie'th nonsense getting in the way. Subtle learning and prodding from Petunia revealed magic was real (even though she detested him for being "a no good freak"), Lightning's thoughts to lost l'Cie magic taught him that old skills can be relearned but takes some time. Right now, as Lightning prepared himself a quick shower, his former l'Cie magic were mainly in Tier 1 level only of his primary strengths of the Commando, Ravager and Medic roles (and secondary role of Sentinel, Saboteur, and Synergist).

He was still training himself to properly cast the higher defense spells and the proper buffs and debuffs. The good thing (or good for Lightning) is that the skills he learned while under the l'Cie contract was all l'Cie magic can be relearned if he trained hard enough; certain skills she was good at were still there so hopefully when he was old enough, he can relearn to cast Thundaga.

The pink-haired Boy-Who-Lived knew that lots of heads will turn. But he was ready for that rocky bridge when it came. Lightning was never afraid. He will charge forth with pride and resilience. Even if the "muggle world" was not thriving with dangerous monsters like Gran Pulse or Nova, the research he did on the "wizarding world" suggested otherwise. It's never a bad idea to be prepared, after all.

That's how he survive the abuse they tried to pile on him because of their objective horror for anything about magic.

=0=0=0=

Vernon reluctantly drove him to the train station, and then abandoned to his own devices. The strange ticket he had labeled a train station number that did not exist. But it may have been a wizard's thing. Lightning carried behind him his school trunk and Hedwig the owl in her cage. In their own cages was Snow the yellow tabby cat, and Serah the white cat.

They were strays that Lightning had taken and cared for, and they bonded with him. Often he had to keep them hidden from the Dursleys. Lightning would never allow those monsters to come anywhere near animals (if Vernon's little tantrum was any indication to the next-door neighbor Mrs. Figg and her one too many felines three years ago). The two felines seem to listen well to Lightning's commands. It helps they were apparently half-kneazle breeds and sought for someone who'd love and care for them. And love and care for them Lightning did.

He was dressed in a variant of his previous outfit during his times as a Guardian Corp. soldier but more suited for the male gender: his white jean shorts were baggier, the black boots a bit clunkier in looks but light enough for his fast sprints. The belt was fitted enough for him to keep his shorts up, and also looped through was a side pouch he made himself to replace his old storage pouch, and on his back was a black large holster for a type of weapon. He made alterations to a midnight blue double-collared sweater vest and lined the outside with a white leather finish and added a touch material to the collars. The altered vest was connected by a similar belt around the torso. Underneath the vest was a simple white t-shirt. Finally to add to his outfit was the short red mantle that acts like a scarf which is patched/sewn to his right shoulder pauldron, held securely by a series of connectable snap belts.

He safely made it to the destination, concluding that the space between the entrances to Platform Nine and Platform Ten was the elusively-named Platform Nine and Three Quarters. The hallway was not busy so Lightning made sure he was not seen before moving forward to the wall. Proving his hunch correct, it was a well-placed illusion hiding an entrance to a secret platform not known or seen by the mundane. It also spared Lightning from hearing a family of redheads clamoring about the hidden wizarding train platform.

In said platform, Lightning was amused by the old machina train used. Bright red steam train (or was it coal-powered; maybe magic-powered) with many connected cars with gold highlights and maroon enclaves. He got many looks from the adults with their kids (either magical-born or the muggle adults sending muggleborn children to a magic school in Scotland). Well, he has light pink hair. So yes, his hair color and the clothes he wore would attract some attention. He ignored the strange looks he got as he boards the train on his own, and eventually found an empty compartment.

"Snow, Serah, you two better behave, and do not wander," he tells the two cats as he allows them out of their cages.

Hedwig was fine by herself, the cage hung on a golden hook reserved for owl owners. His trunk stashed in the compartment storage, he sits down with a familiar item in his hands whilst Serah and Snow laze on the seat across from him. The item Lightning had was something he believed he would never see again: his old Blazefire Saber.

It was lying innocently on top the pile of gold in his Trust Vault (after getting past security crap and proving he was Harry Potter to the goblins that run the wizarding bank in Diagon Alley), packaged within the gunblade holster. Even the goblin Griphook did not know what it was and why it was in his trust vault; however he took it anyway along with enough money to get his supplies and stuff for Hogwarts. Griphook did not comment about the thing that was obvious a type of strange weapon and he was eyed by some of the security goblins in the lobby on his exit.

It felt very familiar in his (small) hands, and with a safe flick the weapon shifted from gun mode to sword mode, and back again with another flick/gesture. He has yet to test the weapon, but examining it in secret at the Dursleys Lightning discovered it had a feature not previously there in his past life: a compartment small enough to connect a wizarding wand inside. He swiftly slides the Blazefire Saber back into the holster, and connects the leather snaps.

Just in time. The door opens and several children were looking in, whispering about his pink hair. Lightning ignored them as he takes out a book and gets lost in reading the novel Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

=0=0=0=

Gryffindor: A suitable place because of his bravery to face the unknown dangers that could kill him. Then again, in his past life Lightning was a fierce warrior. He hid his weapon in his trunk so that no adult would make any noise of him yielding his gunblade on his person. On this journey to Hogwarts, he has met several interesting students whom been to Hogwarts already in the form of two identical red-headed twins, two girls whom were currently in Hufflepuff, a girl named Hermione Granger, and a somewhat intrusive redhead (younger brother of the twins) Ron Weasley.

Lightning did not like the fact the boy wanted to see his scar and then asked if he remembered how he "defeated You-Know-Who". He was giving the silent treatment to the tactless idiot. Such a shame he's in the same house as said tactless idiot. The stares he got when his name was called and he walked up to the sorting hat to be sorted was mainly on his pink hair. Goddesses curse them all: it's just HAIR! So what if it's pink? From what he knows of the Japanese otaku community, they have hair colors much more bizarre than PINK.

At least he was nowhere near that arrogant bigot Draco Malfoy. A smile came across Lightning's face: how was the brat's broken nose faring after he introduced it to his fist.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore's voice boomed out, every bit as grand as his gestures. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak. Thank you!"

Right now dinner was introduced and everyone was eating to their heart's content. Lightning (of course dressed in the school's uniform and the dress robe) grimaced a bit at many of the fatty foods piled on all four tables. There were few vegetable-only plates seen. He liked to eat healthy. But still, he took what suited to his tastes and quietly began to eat, albeit a bit put off by how Ron Weasley ate with little to no manners at all.

Throughout dinner and the following desert (he enjoyed the chocolate éclair ice cream with a side of banana cream pie), some annoyances kept asking him about his pink hair or just try to stare at him and whisper about his pink hair. He would have snapped at them but really, he didn't felt like attracting unnecessary attention. However for those who were attempting to be polite he would make small conversation, but that was basically it.

The desserts soon disappeared in the same manner as dinner, and Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet again. The hall fell silent, and Lightning found himself impressed. Despite looking like a frail old man, he obviously commanded a lot of respect. Looks can be deceiving, after all. You never judge someone based on appearance alone; for it could bite you in the ass later on.

"Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered, starting with the start-of-term notices. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins, both who just smile and try to look innocent. No one was fooled by the acts if the scowls from the greasy hook-nosed man were any indication.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quiddich trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

A few people laughed at the declaration. Lightning however narrowed eyes at the old professor. He wondered if he was being serious and if so, why something that was apparently dangerous enough to cause death is hidden in this school in the first place? And for that matter: what in the name of Etro would he even declare something like that as if it was common news on the internet gossip sites? This would have curious students to go look for whatever is behind the so-called forbidden corridor. He himself would likely investigate what "dangers" are beyond it and if needed, he would silence it before any fool got him/herself killed. Curiosity can be a deadly foe, after all...

"And now before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it which raised high above the tables and twisted itself into words in a snakelike manner. "Everyone pick their favorite tune, and off we go!"

What followed next was quite possibly the most god awful singing to ever occur. Lightning was not amused. In fact, Lightning wished he could stop this god awful singing by using a Thunder spell to shatter the gold ribbons with the notes and wisp-made words that glitter and sparkle. Thankfully it ended, although the Weasley twins tried to be funny with that funeral dirge they mimicked at the end. Dumbledore looked like he ENJOYED IT; he wiped a tear that welled in his eye.

"Ah, music, a magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" he calls with a smile on his face.

Thank the goddess it was over. But now Lightning was gathered by two students who called themselves Prefects and with the rest of the Gryffindor first years, they are herded off to their dormitory. There was a bit of a commotion when they were brought to Gryffindor Tower, that Lightning was greeted by the happy calls from Serah and Snow.

And Lightning did not care what his apparent dorm mates said about his cats as he got ready for bed. Snow and Serah mostly slept outside in the shed, safely out of sight of the Dursleys. This is the first time he's allowed them actual warmth and a bed. At least Hedwig found herself comfort on the coat rack hanger in the corner of the room by the window.

=0=0=0=

Ron Weasley was not going to be a good friend if he kept complaining that his young felines were going to keep "harassing" his pet rat. That much Lightning knew. Then again, said rat should have been left at home instead of brought to school. They bring lots of diseases, leaving behind tiny bits of urine and fecal matter wherever they crawled. Hopefully the rat would get lost somewhere.

"If I see that rat crawling in my things it's going out the window."

A bit mean-spirited, but Lightning liked his clean hygiene.

Nonetheless, Lightning was getting used to wizard magic. He sees some of them as useful, but some that looked to have been created for their lazy comforts. Transfiguration was a unique subject, as well as charms. The man, Professor Snape, was an asshole. Yes, Lightning did not like the fact the man had some sort of vendetta against him, and he has never heard or seen the man in his life. He would have enjoyed beating that arrogance out of him but Lightning kept calm and ignored the man's subtle jabs and scathing remarks in the Potions class.

On other days, History of Magic was a bore because everyone would sleep in the class except the girl, Hermione Granger, as their ghost professor drones on about goblin wars. Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA shortened) was an interesting subject if the man they had for a professor was not a stuttering wreck. He had an amusing thought of Amodar making snapping comments if he was to supervise the classroom.

"Up!"

Today was Broom Training with Madam Hooch. She had spoken about flying, and how to fly on brooms, before allowing the students to learn on their own. The start to the lesson was to command the broom to jump off the ground and into their outstretched hand. Lightning got it with one go.

Malfoy despite all his boasting from earlier this morning about being a broom flying prodigy and evading the chasing of muggle helicopters (he was surprised the boy knew what a helicopter was), he wasn't able to get his broom top jump at his command. Neville's rolled away down the small slope. But, eventually, everyone got their brooms off the ground, and Madam Hooch was teaching them how to properly handle one. She had told Draco off for holding it wrong.

"I've always held it this way for years! I'm a pro!"

The rebuttal from Madam Hooch was, "Well, you've been doing it wrong for years."

It brought sheer amusement to Lightning. The bully's little tactic to Neville this morning was still fresh on his mind. He disliked bullies. Snow also disliked bullies who would tease and pick on those weaker than them. Soon, came the final part of the lesson. She was about to command them how to take off when Neville shot into the air first, the old school broom apparent that it was not for much use anymore. He soon crashed to the ground. He was lucky to survive, and only got away with a broken wrist. Hooch was the first to get to the boy who was cradling his obviously shattered wrist. It looked painful, too.

"Everyone remain here while I take Mister Longbottom to the Infirmary. No one is to fly on the brooms."

With a soft but hard look, the woman led Neville away. Lightning would have been able to heal the broken wrist well with a simple Cure spell, but Lightning did not speak up. Not many knew of his other "unique magical talent".

"Well, well, look what I found. Longbottom's crystal ball!"

Lightning saw Malfoy pick up the Remembrall, the crystal ball that was given to him as a gift from his aunt.

"Give that back, you slimy snake!" Lightning hears Ron Weasley yell, casting a heated look.

"I don't think so, Weasley," Malfoy would say with a taunting look and then smiles as he clutches his broom more.

"I suggest that you hand that back over. It does not belong to you, Draco Malfoy," Lightning spoke up, gently pushing his way through his fellow Gryffindors and up to Malfoy.

The boy flinched a bit. He obviously recalled how he had his nose bloodied by his single fist.

"Then come and get it, Potter!" he would jeer, and getting on his broom, he flew into the air.

Lightning would not take to such obvious bait, but on a technicality, Draco had stolen the item after Neville apparently lost it (likely it had fallen from his pocket mid-fall). He was a bit of a natural flier (or rider counting Odin in his Gestalt Mode). It was a poor tactic by the bully who tried to break the sphere by throwing it with all his strength but Lightning easily caught it as Malfoy flew back to the ground. He was pocketing the sphere away amidst cheers from the Gryffindors-

"MISTER POTTER!"

Lightning turns his head to a scorning Professor McGonagall.

"Of all my years..."

He lowers down to the ground and easily hops off his broom, immediately letting to drop to the ground.

"Mister Potter, you could have gotten yourself hurt!" she would scold the boy.

In the end (and two attempts by fellow Gryffindor sot try and explain what really happened, in which the stern woman would ask for silence), Minerva would bring Lightning to a classroom and ask for wood. Oliver Wood that is, the Gryffindor Quiddich Captain. McGonagall announced to Oliver that he, Lightning (or Harry Potter, whatever) was to be their next Seeker.

Needless to say, Lightning refused. Oliver gawked and looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Even Professor McGonagall was shocked that the Boy-Who-Lived would refuse even though she has tried to lament that he would have been the youngest Seeker in history. Again he refused stating that he wouldn't like to play some broom games and asked if he could head to his next class.

And while flying would be nice and enjoyable, it would be with an Aircycle. And they don't exist in this world because the technology to make one doesn't exist yet. Aside that and the fact Oliver would cast some glares at him for refusing to join the Gryffindor Quiddich Team (it had made news somehow amongst the student populous), the school and learning about magic wasn't all that bad...

It was now October. The month went on like normal, although as a certain day drew closer Lightning was closing himself off more. Oh yeah, Neville, did get his Remembrall back and the boy thanked Harry for it with a smile on his face.

SLAM!

"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!"

Quirrel stops screaming as he reaches the end of his journey.

"Thought you'd like to know..."

Ignoring the fact the man had banged his head falling forward in a dead faint in the middle of the Great Hall, and most of the students start to scream bloody murder of a troll having broken into the school, Lightning was walking the hallways and keeping himself hidden in case the mean man Filch and his pet grungy cat caught him not at the feast. He never wanted to go at all.

Today was Halloween. It also was the day his parents in this life were murdered by a mad-man who died trying to kill him. He didn't felt like celebrating this fact. Then a god awful smell assaulted his nose and he heard a scream. A familiar scream...

Lightning draws Blazefire Saber (after dispelling the Disillusion Charm he taught himself) and starts sprinting down the hallway towards the source of the screams and that bad smell. He draws his wand and slots it into the weapon, and with a flick morphs the gunblade into its sword form. Lightning hears a crash and saw the backside of a mountain troll, as described in the books. It smashed its way through the door of where Hermione's terrified screams were emanating.

"Fire!"

Blasts of flames strike the beast making a minor burn into its back. The troll's club wildly swung, shattering away the cubical that gave the toilets their privacy for any users, and also smash a section of fancy stone sinks. The troll, angered, turns around only to get a blast of magic-replicating bullets to hit its torso. Troll skin was resilient, and the magic bullets were like hard bug bites. It served to anger it more.

"Move it now, Granger!" Lightning snapped at the terrified girl getting soaked by the spraying water from the broken pipes. She was too terrified to move.

Cursing and jumping back from the slamming club, Lightning had cast Haste on himself to boost his foot speed, and roughly grab Hermione and toss her into a fireman's carry. Still firing the Blazefire Saber, he ran out of the gaping hole that once was the doorway. He kept running down the hallway, ignoring that the troll was now giving chase. It was heavy and fat, but its weight gave it the speed as it moved. He quickly twisted around the corner as the troll skidded past. He sets Hermione down and positions himself in front of the terrified girl.

The troll came into view just as he heard footfalls. But those footfalls were ignored. A bluish aura envelops Lightning for a brief moment, as magic beckons at his silent command. He had shifted from his Commando role to his Ravager role. Then a deadly lick of flame swirls along the blade of the Blazefire Saber.

"Taste my Flamestrike, you ugly brute," he calls out, and sprints forward whipping the weapon in an angle. The troll swung its club first but Lightning was still very fast with the Haste spell in effect. It smashed nothing but stone as Lightning ran up the club, the arm, and cuts down when he jumped. The fire that arcs in the slicing movement made the troll scream out in pain as it damaged its face, and marred its left eye rendering it blind in that socket. With a quick boost, he back flips away and lands on his feet.

Throwing his free hand before him, magic is called to him as the air turned frosty. Then with a thrust of his open palm, he casts a Blizzard spell and impacts the in-pain troll with a bombardment of ice. It was similar to the Glacius spell he read in one of his spell books he owns, but the Blizzard l'Cie spell was much stronger than the wizard's version. Anyone else however wouldn't know they were different.

He charged, but this time he heard the startled cries of adults as the Army of One technique was administered. Heavy strikes with Blazefire Saber, heavy kicks, and imparted sniper shots infused into a deadly but very graceful dance work of foot movement, and Lightning lands the final skull-crushing blow that would knock it out with a very painful concussion and a cracked cranium. It would have some form of long-term brain damage because at the end he had shifted to his Commando role to impart an increased strength to the magical essence he was letting loose.

A swing, a gesturing folding, and the weapon swiftly is put away as his school robes fell back down as he struck a rather heroic victorious pose staring down the silent troll. The troll fell forward and Lightning merely leaps back with a single somersault, evading the troll face planting the stone floor.

Pure silence...

He turned around. Hermione was in danger, and he was trained to be a soldier, a warrior. While young, yes, he was able to get back to his position of strength as his body's limits could handle. The adults have seen him take out a troll with such ease, and with a "dangerous weapon (they'd likely want to confiscate it; he wouldn't let them of course). Hermione would stare at him for a moment, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she faints, no longer able to understand what she had witnessed.

Lightning did not blame Hermione for her current choice to faint.

She survived a brush with death, after all...

"What were you thinking? Dear Merlin!" was the chastising voice of Minerva McGonagall. "You could have been killed!"

"And Hermione would have been a victim had I not save her," was the retort, casting a hardened look that struck fear into many a man who would try to flirt with him when he was a woman in his previous life on Cocoon.

"And what were you doing lurking the hallways, Potter?" was the question by Professor Snape.

Lightning did not like the man because he was still antagonistic towards him. Still, he answered.

"Today was Halloween. Today was the day everybody would celebrate with drinks and all sorts of sweets, unaware that it is also the very day my mother and father were murdered by a rampaging psychopath, who couldn't even kill a defenseless one year old baby after taking his parents from his life."

The answer was sharp, cold, and it cut like an iron sword through soft flesh. It made them all flinch at the tone Lightning bit out at them in his reply, except for Quirrell. Then again, the stuttering man was always jumping at the shadows now and then; it's a wonder he's even teaching the class he was employed to.

"Since Granger is safe from danger, one of you can take her unconscious form to the Hospital Ward. I'm going to head to my bed and sleep."

Without a care, Lightning strode past the adults and ignored them.

Yes, he didn't really like this day of the month. It would have been wonderful to have parents, especially since he and Serah never had parents; theirs dying when they were young and he became the adult of the family. But because of a psycho Dark Lord, in this reincarnated life he wouldn't know the love and care of a mother and father. He did get some sleep, but it took awhile before it came to him.

* * *

**The rest of Year One is coming up next, and some of Year Two. Lightning versus a Basilisk and baby Voldemort? How interesting would THAT scene be, ne?**

**Review if you enjoyed this unique story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

**Author's Note:** Surprised people like this type of story. It also draws some inspirations from a story called _Waiting in Sin_.The author JerichosPhantom has written that nice (insert character is Harry Potter) story and is worth reading. It's a Bleach/HP fic.

For new readers that check this (Lightning Always Strikes), the plot speaks of Lightning's years at Hogwarts who everybody knows her/him as Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived. Certain events that are deemed important are focused upon with some surprise elements as Harry/Lightning grows older.

You'll be surprised at how this story fleshes out as we go through the books. For now, enjoy~

* * *

Lightning was led up the revolving staircase into Dumbledore's office by Professor McGonagall. But apparently it was not the old man who was alone. The other heads of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin were there as well. Lightning knew they wanted to talk about the events from two days ago. Since it was a Saturday, and thus a weekend, there would be no classes to interfere with this meeting.

"Hello Mr. Potter. I'm glad Professor McGonagall was able to escort you."

Lightning did not respond; just merely give a slight huff and a crossing of his arms.

"I hope this is important. I was in the middle of completing my homework assignments," he tells the Headmaster.

He hoped to finish them so he could try and locate a place where he could actively perform some of his usual workouts. Privacy doesn't hurt, either. It was why he was wearing the very same choice outfit he wore when heading to the train in September.

"We were questioning the events of what had occurred between you and the troll which had infiltrated the school," the Headmaster questions kindly.

"It is nothing that concerns you, Headmaster Dumbledore," Lightning answers calmly. "I only did what others would have done were they in my situation and a child was in danger of greeting Death at his doorstep."

"Not many wizards would use such a dangerous but strange weapon that you yielded, nor are they that fast," he retaliates calmly.

"Most of the children here of wizarding birth are fat, slow, and lazy. I am fast, nimble, and strong. You will be quiet surprised at how one's active and healthy lifestyle can condition a human, Headmaster," Lightning literates to the old man. "No potions, no "magic rituals", and Lightning made quotation fingers on that last word, "just a healthy balance of food, exercise, and good rest. But with most of the foods served at Hogwarts made to fatten you up, I have to substitute some of my liked foods with others, and just exercise more often when able. It wouldn't kill you to serve a healthier large dose of vegetables during dinner to compliment the meats."

Lightning stares at Dumbledore, ignoring the looks from his other professors (in this case, the dark glare from Professor Snape). Dumbledore stares back, unflinching from Lightning's cool and sharp gaze.

"And as for my weapon... I'm assuming you all believe such a device should not be in the hands of a child, and look to alleviate me of it by holding it, keeping it locked somewhere until I am older or have been trained to use such a blade. The answer is no. My gunblade, my Blazefire Saber will not be relinquished over to you."

"Arrogant just like your father, Potter," snapped Professor Snape, as the other professors gave disapproving looks to Lightning.

"And how would I know about my father, professor? He was murdered, and my mother when she pleaded for Voldemort to spare my life was struck down like an animal."

The barb struck at Snape in a bad way, because he flinched. He still glared at him however.

"I recall my mother's cries, her pleas for allow me to live discarded like trash as she was struck down. And I see the flash of green before his evil smile."

And now the other adults were horrified, none more than Dumbledore.

"My weapon belongs to me, and only me. A Prefect once saw it and confiscated it. It magically returned to my possession almost immediately. She didn't deserve that hit afterward but a slight concussion is worth keeping it a secret... at least from the other students. They won't know how to handle such a weapon."

"Where did you get it?" Dumbledore all but commanded. Such a weapon was something not even known in the muggle world, and they often create deadlier and deadlier weapons, like the bomb that leveled Hiroshima during World War II. He wasn't even sure if it was magical in nature. It certainly doesn't look like something crafted by the goblins; Flitwick would have said something about it before all agreeing to bring Harry Potter to this meeting.

"In my Trust Vault when I went to Diagon Alley by myself, after making inquiries to Petunia Dursley when I received that letter from your school. She wouldn't take me to the place so I went there by myself. It is interesting to learn new things about magic. Oh, and Headmaster Dumbledore, if you have my Trust Vault key, mail it to Gringotts so they can melt it down to create a new one. Since the goblins were willing to assist me in learning things I had no previous knowledge to, all previous keys and any copies are invalid since making a brand new one cancels the old."

Lightning almost gives them a smile.

"While the muggle world has no dangerous creatures that run rampant, reading several books at Flourish and Blotts suggests otherwise in the wizarding world. My little knock-out of that mountain troll that almost killed Hermione is a testament to my protection of myself, and others I deem friends. Make an enemy out of me, and you will be struck by lightning."

Now he forms a full smile, almost snickering at the pun. He may be Harry Potter, but he'll always refer to himself as Eclair "Lightning" Farron.

"If I may be excused, I have some homework to finish for Herbology, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Not until we have that device of yours. It is a dangerous weapon and is not to be used by children."

Lightning would take offense to that, but he settled for a light glare. Since he never took a seat, all he does is reach around back, undoes the button clasps and draws the weapon out with the safety on. Clack goes the gunblade, set down rather hard on Dumbledore's desk.

"I doubt you'll have it for long anyway."

Without another word he dismisses himself, his smile hidden from the other adults. The weapon will magically return to his possession soon. It happened before, it'll happen again. SLAM goes the door. Dumbledore stares at the folded weapon. It does look strange.

"I wonder if Mr. Potter is willing to learn how to be a dueling champion when he's older," Professor Flitwick thinks aloud.

"Fillius!"

"What? I'm not the only one who saw how fast Mr. Potter was on his feet. He has the signs of being a great dueling champion," the diminutive professor laments on old memories of his prime, a soft smile on his face.

"He was fast," Professor Spout admits.

Flitwick smiles, glad someone agreed with him. "And he is correct, Albus. I have seen some muggles who have eaten healthy, exercised their bodies in many different ways, and live longer lives. Especially with their joy for their muggle Olympics."

Dumbledore eventually dismissed the teachers as he sets the strange but dangerous weapon into his desk for safe keeping. As soon as the drawer was closed shut, and he had applied a locking charm on it, the Blazefire Saber vanished. It would end up back inside Lightning's trunk.

Lightning made it to Gryffindor Tower, and giving the password he walks inside. Few students lounged in the common room. Many are likely napping, enjoying the nice day outside, for the older students who have OWLs and NEWTs studying hard, or visiting other friends around the castle. In one corner some second years were playing Exploding Snaps. But one person that caught Lightning's attention was Hermione Granger.

"Harry..."

"Save it, Hermione," he puts a hand up. "I did what anybody would have done in the face of danger."

"You saved me from that troll... you... you did something to overpower it," she whispers.

"It's nothing special. Just a mere martial arts maneuver," he passes off his true skills.

Hermione looked shy. She had recalled it vividly. The strange magic that he used, how strong he was when she was roughly fireman carried from the chasing troll, and then fainting after watching him directly confront it with his strange weapon. It didn't look anything she had seen in the muggle world (since she has lived in the muggle world).

"How? How did you know I was in trouble?"

"After Ron Weasley had insulted you and you fled in tears, I thought you'd recover but you weren't seen by anyone. I even asked your dorm mates of your location and they said you were in the loo on the other side of the castle crying your eyes out."

Lightning looks to the side briefly, where he caught the eyes of Ron Weasley when his name was mentioned. The boy looked away, guilty.

"And Halloween is the same night where I lost my parents to a lunatic bastard who wanted to rule the world," Lightning would bluntly tell Hermione, who stared at him with a shocked look. Well, those who were in hearing range were also shocked. He just referred to the Dark Lord as a bastard. Which he kinda is...

"And that's why I never went to the party in the Great Hall two nights ago. I wanted to be alone. It was a good thing too. I was going to find you anyway and then I caught the whiff of the troll's scent, and heard your screams so I came to your rescue. So... you survived death..."

Lightning was surprised by the girl's sudden glomp.

"Thank you for saving me, Harry," she says, voice muffled as she was holding him tight.

Lightning sighs softly, and rubs her back to calm her down.

=0=0=0=

The month of November soon bleeds into December, and the winter break was soon coming. Students who are willing to leave would do so after signing their names on lists provided by their Head of House. Lightning opted to stay at the school because he didn't feel like intruding on his relatives. They wouldn't like having an owl in the house and Vernon does have a bit of a short temper. Hermione was becoming something of a friend. And while our lovable idiot Ron Weasley HAD apologized to Hermione, he was still himself. And Lightning did make good promise on the rat trying to get into his things. Well, he tried to toss the rat out the window; damn thing bit his finger and ran off.

Friends with Hermione Granger, yes... Friends with Ron Weasley, not yet... although Lightning has struck up something of a friendship with the Weasley Twins, who we all know as Fred and George, or was it George and Fred? They had a dynamic between them, not to mention he (Lightning) did find it humorous when they try their twin speech on him. And also partly because of the twins did Ron even apologize to Hermione for being a prat just because she wanted to help him that one charms class that led to the troll incident.

So, apparently if you are friends with one of the Weasleys, their mother, Molly Weasley, considers you a family friend. When Lightning woke up on Christmas morning, he had several gifts issued to him from Molly and Author, Fred and George's father.

"Aye, she always makes these things," Lightning would hear Ron mutter as he held up what looks like a hand-stitched Christmas sweater with his initials on the front on bright gold loopy colors on a maroon red backdrop. Lightning's was green with yellow.

"Well mum considers you a family friend, Harry," says George.

"That is one of her famous Weasley Jumpers," says Fred.

"We all get one each Christmas," George says next.

"Not to mention the fudge." Fred.

"Oh quite right, dear brother. Love the chocolate." George.

"Great with ice cold milk." Fred.

"Or some hot chocolate with marshmallows." George.

Yeah... aren't they awesome?

Lightning just smiles politely, folding the sweater up. He's never met the woman, but he made a small promise to introduce himself to Mrs. Weasley when school ended. The twins shared some of the home-made fudge with Lightning, who did find them very delicious, indeed. Lightning soon left the comfort of the common room, bringing his gifts and two that remained unopened to his trunk by his bed, and then left. You see, during the month of October Lightning's adventurous investigation had uncovered a strange magical mirror that showed one's greatest desire inside one's heart.

The mirror was good to look into; as Lightning had desired to be surrounded by those he considered his cherished friends and family. The second uncover was the kitchens where he met creatures called House Elves, the ones who prepared the foods each and every day. With some coaxing, the House Elves were willingly to comply with his request of preparing healthier foods at least for him, and possibly for those whom didn't want to eat fatty foods day in/day out. The third thing was his research into the Cerberus, a three-headed dog that sat behind the door on the forbidden corridor that sat on top of a trap door. He dare not venture further inside until he was ready to see what Dumbledore was hiding.

Finally, the fourth thing he uncovered (and this was quite on accident) was a strange empty room that was teeming with magic. When Lightning saw two older teens that looked to be from Ravenclaw enter a door that appeared like magic, he stayed hidden until they re-emerged. Copying what they did, he entered into what is known as the Room of Requirement. The teens had left behind the wizarding world's version of pornography magazines. He left the porn alone, and asked silently for a place where he could train to his heart's content. Thus right now, until the Christmas Feast later in the afternoon, Lightning was battling against various Gran Pulse monsters recreated from the room's use of golems and training both his l'Cie-type magic and wizarding-type magic.

He would enjoy the feast, but later that night he would open his last two gifts: a fifty pence piece from the Dursleys, and an Invisibility Cloak. The cloak would be stuffed into the trunk and forgotten.

=0=0=0=

Since Lightning wasn't a Quiddich player, he never had to suffer from Professor Quirrel secretly trying to kill him by jinxing his broom (and Snape secretly trying to save his life in the process). The rest of the school year went off somewhat well aside Hagrid's little hut of his burning down when he had hatched a dragon. He was fined for it, and dragon handlers from Romalia had come to take the beast to the preserve. Hagrid was an interesting man when he was invited to his hut after it was quickly rebuilt (thanks to Dumbledore's help); had some memories about his mother and father.

Lightning discovered someone or something was killing unicorns in the Forbidden Forest but no one could figure out who would do such a heinous act. He did some light investigative work into that but quickly lost interest because of a run-in with a large spider the size of a 60 pound pumpkin. Draco Malfoy would continue to tease or taunt Lightning, but unlike Ron Weasley, never snapped at any of the boy's little baiting traps. He tried to get him in trouble by presenting a Wizard's Duel at midnight near the trophy case. Lightning didn't go but Ron did claiming Gryffindor Pride. Ron (and his friend Lee) cost Gryffindor House 100 points being caught out of curfew by Filch.

Lightning was still investigating the trap door when something caught the boy's eye near the end of the school year: a shadowy person entering the room when he snuck into the forbidden corridor. A shimmer is seen if anyone else was there, and Lightning's pink hair is revealed, followed by his face. He had decided to try out the Invisibility Cloak. It proved very useful.

"Now who the hell are you going into that forbidden door?" he says to himself.

He hides himself under the cloak again and decides to go into the room, but after he took a minute to undo a locking charm on it. The Cerberus was found fast asleep, a large harp in the corner charmed to play melodious music. The trap door was unguarded. Lightning has gone through the trap door, burned away Devil's Snare, and blasted through the doors that were locked.

The person he was tracking down had already gotten at the end using a form of shadowy apparition. Lightning did not have this technique so it took the pinkette some time to get through. The large chess board pieces took their sweet time trying to force Lightning to play their little game. The troll was knocked out cold, and it was the Potions room with the black flames which Lightning casts Blizzard spells until the black fire was finally put out.

Going through the archway, he travels through a short corridor and down steps, where he hears arguing. A man stands in front of a mirror, the familiar one Lightning found in another room months ago. Quietly folding his invisibility cloak and hiding it behind a pillar of stone, he decides to confront the man in front of the mirror.

"So... this is what Dumbledore said was dangerous," he speaks aloud, getting the professor's attention. Said man had a shocked look on his face. "Professor Quirrel. I'd expected the antagonist, Professor Snape. You? Now that's surprising."

"What are you doing here, boy?" the man spoke, his stuttering absent.

Lightning narrows his eyes. "I knew you were faking. So who the hell are you?"

_"Let me see the boy."_

The dark voice was hissing, and Quirrel's face turned pale and hands look clammy.

"B-but master! You're not strong enough!"

_"I have enough strength to do this..."_

Lightning stood tense as the man's hands reached up, as if acted by puppet strings and the turban is unwrapped. As Quirrel turns around, he sees a face on the back with a slight-slitted nose and red eyes. The mouth it had was twisted with a growl.

"Harry Potter," the face snarls, "you look very different, but I recognize those eyes anywhere. They're the same eyes as your mudblood whore of a mother."

Lightning now casts his infamous glare.

"You want to repeat that again, you disgusting piece of trash?" Lightning coolly says.

The spectral snarls at him angry at being called trash.

"YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME! Reducing me to that of a mere specter... I don't know what happened that night, but I had died. I barely clung to this world, possessing animals and devouring what little energy they had until I found Quirrel in Albania. So, Potter, you are a lot smarter than you want them to believe. How... cunning..."

Lightning just kept staring the man down, who he now assumed to be the very same Dark Lord everybody was so scared to mention by name.

"And you are Voldemort... or what remains of your pathetic existence."

Voldemort growls again.

"Ever since Dumbledore said this corridor was off-limited or you'd experience a painful death, I was curious as to what the old man was hiding. Why would he even dare hold something that could harm his entire school? Now truly, that isn't something a man who hosts a school wouldn't do. I knew about the dog on the trap door, but was confused as to what could be hidden here. Then I read the papers on that break-in at Gringotts in a vault that was already empty. I didn't have any puzzle pieces to give me any sort of clues."

Lightning smiles.

"Doesn't matter. Whatever it is that you are apparently after... can't let you take this mysterious hidden prize."

"You think you can stop me, boy?"

"I stopped that troll on Halloween night," he retorts.

Voldemort forced his host to send out ropes from the tip of the wand, but Lightning had sliced the ropes up with Blazefire Saber.

"Use the boy to gaze in the mirror!"

"_Incarcerous_!" Quirrel shouts, sending the ropes to subdue/trap Lightning, but the pinkette was burning the ropes with Fire spells, shocking the Dark Lord stuck in the back of Quirrel's head.

A Blizzard was cast and Quirrel got his left arm iced. His wand arm was stabbed with chunks of clinging ice.

"So, whatever you want is in the mirror? A possible sub-space inventory?"

A calculating look shines, and Lightning lifts his weapon up, shifting it into gun mode. Electricity runs along the barrel of the weapon.

"Sparkstrike."

He pulls the trigger, and Quirrel screamed as he tried to block the strange spell. He was two seconds too late. The attack struck the mirror and it shatters into thousands of little pieces.

"YOU FOOL! KILL HIM! KILL THE BOY-WHO-LIVED!" Voldemort's voice rages loudly.

But Lightning had shifted from Synergist into Commando again one Haste spell later. Quicker foot speed equals an arm falling when Lightning slashed at the man. From there, he lands several punches that left an interesting side-effect: the man's face where he punched looked like cracking ash.

"My face! It burns, master!"

Lightning stares at his bare fist, before looking to the crying man. He kicks him in the side of the head, then another kick to the solar plexus. Finally, a chopping slash of his weapon send the man to the ground. Voldemort was screaming in rage but Lightning pins the evil man down and slams his hand over his face. A sizzling is heard as the man literally is burning and falling apart like the ash of a discarded cigar.

Lightning back flips onto his feet and casts a Fire spell, ending Quirrel's life. A shadowy smoke rose from the burning remains of the body and screams charging at Lightning but the pinkette throws a Fire spell, deterring the angry spirit of Voldemort away. He continues to scream, rushing through the stone wall with fading wails. With a quick flick, Blazefire Saber is holstered again. Quirrel was the host of the spirit of Voldemort, and whatever Dumbledore was hiding was now lost since he had destroyed the magic mirror.

Lightning immediately fled the room, donning the cloak again and waiting in the chess room as Dumbledore had canceled the animation on the large pieces. Needless to say, Dumbledore had no idea what had happened, and was a bit sad that the mirror was destroyed. Quirrel was dead, burned by magical fire. The rest of the school went off well if you ignore Oliver's crying that Gryffindor did not win the Quiddich Cup. Nor did they win the House Cup (Slytherin won this year). Dumbledore made mention that Quirrel had left early to explain his sudden absence.

Hours later and one train ride later, Lightning had met Fred and George's mother and the rest of the family. He found it cute that Ginny was shy at meeting him, and Molly was a very kind woman, while Arthur was a bit of an eccentric man. The summer was going to be a good one, Lightning told Hermione after meeting her parents, and promising to exchange letters through muggle mail.

Well, it was somewhat good until somewhere before the date his second year course letter would arrive via owl, he was accosted by a House Elf that tried to keep his wizarding mail from him, and pleaded that, "Harry Potter sir must not goes to Hogwarts." Lightning had told the elf he wouldn't and got his mail back, and the elf vanished in a crack of magic. He blatantly lied to the elf. He was going to figure out how to make a report of an apparent rogue House Elf that was stealing his wizarding mail.

=0=0=0=

"He's so gay," Lightning says aloud, seeing the man known as Gilderoy Lockhart. Two Slytherin girls, Tracey Davis, and Daphne Greengrass, heard THE Harry Potter say that sentence and were trying hard not to laugh.

It's August and time to go shopping once again. He was invited by the Weasleys to go shopping when he arrived at the Leaky Cauldron (after persuading Petunia to drop him off). He also met with Hermione who was left there by her parents.

"Harry," Hermione gasps, scandalized.

"Well, he is. I mean look at him. He's so gay. No human has teeth that white and sparkles each time he beams a smile. He's worse than a man dressed in spandex who shouts about the flames of youth of something along those lines..."

In another universe, a ninja clad in green spandex sneezed, and then shouts about the flames of youth flaring to astronomical levels. His mini-me screams about it too and two unfortunate teenagers were blinded by a sunset that explodes behind them after they man hugged.

Unfortunately for Lightning, he was spotted by the flamboyant man and said flamboyant man loudly boasted about meeting the great Boy-Who-Lived whilst getting the camera to turn attention to them. Lightning was roughly yanked into the limelight he didn't want. His body went sailing out the window of the book shop one hip toss later.

"Okay he is so cool," Tracey told her friend Daphne.

Other than a scolding from Molly for what he did, Lightning didn't apologize for his actions.

Then he found out later from Hermione the man was going to be their DADA Professor this year.

* * *

**I can't help but make fun of Gilderoy Lockhart and compare his flamboyant ways with Maito Gai from **_Naruto_**. Although Gai would likely be favored more than Lockhart. How would Lightning compare with an insane House Elf that tries to prevent her/him from going to Hogwarts this school year?**

**It'll be fun...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

* * *

Lightning had walked all the way from the train station to the Leaky Cauldron. He looked weird with all of his things but many didn't pay attention. Stare, yes, but mostly ignored him. It was JUST him. He was not the only one that got trapped behind the sealed barrier; one Ronald Weasley was also there. However instead of thinking logically Ron decided to steal his father's flying car that the man charmed himself. Lightning on the other hand decided to walk. When he finally reached the Leaky Cauldron, he opens the door and catch the attention of Tom, the bar man.

"Harry Potter! What are you doing here? You should have been on the train to Hogwarts."

"The barrier at the platform has sealed itself on me. No matter what I did I couldn't even budge through the illusion used to hide it. The train departed so I gave up and walked all the way here."

"But that's a long distance by foot, Mr. Potter."

"Can you contact Headmaster Dumbledore, and inform him of my predicament, sir?"

Tom nods. "Of course, Mr. Potter. I'll get right on it. Would you like a drink in the meantime?"

"Just iced water, sir."

Tom smiles, and after getting Lightning a tankard filled with cold water from the tap with some crushed ice, he goes to send the fastest owl with a message to the Headmaster.

=0=0=0=

Lightning learned about the Floo Network, and how green powder is used to create the magical entrance to connected fireplaces. It sounded strange to Lightning, but it got him to Hogwarts. Dumbledore was very polite in listening to his story of how he had gone to the platform when he flooed to the Leaky Cauldron to meet with his wayward student with pink hair, how Lightning waited to be the last to go through, and then the portal apparently solidified itself. Dumbledore also learned of the whereabouts of Ronald Weasley who thought to use Arthur's Ford Angelina instead of listening to Harry. In the man's mind, Harry had done the right thing despite the circumstances.

While Lightning would wait until the school feast began when everyone arrived, Dumbledore made an inquiry to the Auror Department. Aurors sent to investigate the strange anomaly had confirmed magic was used to block the entrance and they had to call in a Curse Breaker to deal with it. Lightning never suspected the strange elf that visited him that summer to be the culprit. But the school started off nonetheless, unaware that a plot was going to unfold involving Ginny Weasley, and a certain diary Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, had sneakily deposit into the girl's potion cauldron.

That was before he and Arthur exchanged "pleasantries" with one another (i.e. Arthur punched Lucius first, and the man punched back). The month started off as usual: Reviewing of school work, the start of the next range of subjects from respective classes, and of course a new batch of sorted children coming to Hogwarts for the first time. The girl, Ginny Weasley, was in Gryffindor with the rest of her family. Oh, Ron did show up at the start of the school's opening feast, and got the following looks: disappointment (Dumbledore), a stern glare (McGonagall), and a smug look (Snape). He lost Gryffindor House 150 points.

=0=0=0=

Lightning is the last to walk into the room, and he took a seat in the back next to the girl he recognized as Daphne Greengrass.

"Hello everyone! Welcome to your first class of the new year at Hogwarts! My name is Professor Lockhart!"

Some sighs are heard from our female crowds sans Tracey, and Daphne. They weren't fooled by the flamboyance of the man. The guys of the crowd just groan. Lightning wished he could knock the man unconscious, but knew he'd get in trouble if he did.

"So gay," Lightning whispers. A snicker comes from Tracey and he glances briefly to the girl.

"I agree. He's full of himself," the girl said. "Hello Harry Potter. I'm Tracey Davis."

She elbows Daphne. "I'm Daphne Greengrass," the blonde says politely enough.

"Nice to meet you both," he whispers back with a smile.

Lightning heard of this so-called rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. He didn't believe in that crap. He hoped to make friends outside Gryffindor, and maybe these two young girls could be new friends...

It was lunch and Lightning had a free period after DADA. The first class wasn't even productive. All the man had everyone do was a pop quiz which revolved mainly on himself, his ego, and his trashy books. The only ones who did not find it fun were the guys, Lightning, Daphne, and Tracey. He had paged through all the "books" for DADA before school began and immediately knew they were trash. Half the "stories" had plot holes and glaring errors in them. He suspected plagiarism.

Meow.

He was jolted out of his thought by Serah jumping onto the table. He smiles softly.

"Where's Snow, Serah?"

The cat just meows again, although the half-kneazle breed was looking towards Snow who was lazily sleeping on the couch. It brings a smile to his face.

=0=0=0=

A first year is stalking me...

That thought runs in Lightning's head. He had to hold himself from retaliating. Y'know, when PSICOM tried to track them down during their escapades into Palumpolum, any unlucky PSICOM soldier that tried to get the sneak attack on her and Fang suffered horribly.

When Lightning finally turned around to tell the boy to stop stalking him, he was flashed in the face by the camera's light and a soft poof of smoke signaling the photo was taken.

Must not punch the boy. Must not punch the boy. Must not punch the boy.

"Can you sign this, Harry?" the boy asks politely, as if he wasn't stalking him like a perverse sicko or a deranged psycho.

"Well, well, well, Harry Potter is giving out signed photos?" drawls a familiar voice. IN steps Malfoy and company.

"No I'm not," he tells the boy.

"Hey everyone! Harry Potter is giving out signed photographs!" Malfoy announced loudly, ignoring Lightning.

Professor Lockhart just so happened to appear, and heard those words. "Oh! Signed photos? I wouldn't mind that," said Lockhart, grabbing Lightning and pulling the preteen into the spotlight. Malfoy in the background was chuckling with his two big cronies.

"Smile for the camera, Harry," Lockhart tells the boy, beaming his smile (PING).

All that Colin got a photo of was Lightning in mid-throw, and Lockhart the poor victim of being hip-tossed once again. Sadly, there was no window to go through so into the wall was suitable outside the magical photo take. Of course Colin had to dodge and he had dropped his camera. It broke. Sad, but them's the breaks.

Now who's laughing? Certainly not Malfoy.

"See? Told ya he's awesome," Tracey whispers to Daphne.

He would be given a detention for what he did but Lightning was content and accepted it without argument.

He should have complained.

Answering fan mail for a total of four hours was torture.

=0=0=0=

The Quiddich Pitch is where Lightning was dragged to by Hermione, and somewhat-friend Ron (the pinkette still wished for the rat to not get into his things). If Hermione and Ron became friends, then he COULD tolerate such. Right now there was a practice happening with the Gryffindor Quiddich Team. Oliver was really hoping Lightning decided to become a Quiddich Player. He was disappointed. But Malfoy came up with Slytherin's Quiddich Team, and the boy rubbed it in that he bought his team new racing brooms and announced he was the team's newest Seeker. Lightning still did not rise to his bait. Yes he would have liked to fly, but he just wasn't a fan of Quiddich. Then Ron barfed up slugs after his spell backfired due to his broken wand "repaired" with spell-o-tape. The reason is Malfoy called Hermione a mudblood and Ron and many Gryffindors reacted in anger to the racist word.

October arrived and the month was as quiet as a magical school can be (sans older teens doing the hanky panky when they thought they were alone, the twins doing their usual fun pranks, and all sorts of teenage chaos). But like last year Lightning did not go to the Halloween feast on October 31st. He was however invited (begged, actually) by Nearly Headless Nick to attend the Death Day Party hosted by the other ghosts. He attended only out of politeness. He should have reconsidered.

"I do apologize, Harry," Nick tells the pinkette.

"She's hormonal," Lightning states.

He was referring to the girl ghost he had met, who does by Myrtle de Winter. Thankfully Lightning knew some drying charms so he was able to clean himself of the fruit punch splashed on him when she fled crying her eyes out. Said punch was not fresh. He didn't know WHAT he did to upset the ghostly girl, but when she fled she hit the punch bowl, and you know what had happened... splash and all.

_"... Rip... tear... kill..."_

Lightning stared at the walls, trying to find the voice. Trotting up the wall, he pressed his ear against it, searching. "It's that voice again," he says.

_"... So hungry... for so long..."_

Nick was confused. "Harry? What's wrong? I hear no voice."

"I hear a voice that's whispering, Nick," Lightning said, tense and crouching a bit as he moved forward, keeping close to the wall. He was now acting like a soldier prepared for dangers.

_"... Kill... time to kill..."_

The voice was growing fainter and moving... up? Following his ears, Lightning sprinted down the corridor and up the stairs, shoes pounding the marble steps loudly. Ignoring Nick's frantic babbling, he jumped the last two stairs up to the first floor, still running as he continued to follow the mysterious voice. He stops when he reached the end. The scent of blood was in the air and on the wall was a drawn message:

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE

And hung above was Mrs. Norris, Filch's mangy cat. It was stiff and frozen in place, in the position of terror.

"Oh dear Merlin," Nick gasps in fright.

"M-M-Mrs. Norris!"

Lightning looked around. Other students have come and crowded, having left the Great Hall. Filch was the one who screamed out in pain seeing his cat the way it was.

"Beware mudbloods! You'll be next!" Lightning hears Malfoy crow in the back. He narrows his eyes at that subtle threat.

_Something strange is going on here..._

"YOU! YOU DID THIS! I'LL KILL YOU!" He hears Filch scream, and found himself manhandled by the adult. In defense, Filch was grabbed and thrown over and right into the ground. Lightning still held his right arm and yanked hard dislocating his shoulder and pressed down on his torso with his right foot. The other students gasp at what he had just done. Those whom never liked Filch couldn't believe they were witnessing what had just happened.

"Harry! Enough!"

Lightning let go.

"This man grabbed me and was threatening me. I simply reacted in defense, Headmaster."

"Dumbledore! Harry didn't do this!" Nick pleads to the old man. "He was with me all night. I invited him to the Death Day Party held by the other ghosts. They can confirm he was with us."

Filch's cries hurt. Lightning had forced the man's shoulder back into its socket.

"Filch's shoulder was dislocated from his socket so... I reset his shoulder back in place."

Dumbledore looked a bit disturbed by the boy's blank look. He walked past Filch who was being helped up by Professor Spout. Dumbledore flicks his wand and the cat was levitated off its hung perch.

"Your cat is not dead, Mr. Filch. She is merely petrified. I doubt Mr. Potter could do something like this."

Dumbledore stops a bit, remembering the troll incident. But he turns around.

"Come with me so we can see Madam Pomfrey, and we can discuss about how NOT to manhandle our students like what you did to Mr. Potter." The man's voice went a bit stern, before lightening up. "Prefects, escort your houses back to the common rooms. And Harry?"

"Yes, sir?"

"While I won't punish you because you reacted in self-defense, next time I will issue a detention." Dumbledore stares coolly into Lightning's eyes. "Understand?"

He nods. "Yes, sir. I understand completely."

Dumbledore smiles. The old man was not a stranger to muggles and their fighting styles like martial arts, and the term self-defense. The prefects were leading their houses away from the sight, Lightning catching looks from Hermione and Ron. Lightning looks to Nick. Professor Snape glared at him before walking off, robes billowing. He wanted to say something but in the end didn't.

"Thank you, Nick."

"You didn't do this, Harry. However this is really spooky and I'm a ghost."

Yes. Yes it was...

Lightning glances to the bloody message on the wall, recalling Malfoy's threat. Something was going on and the school may be in danger. Lightning soon leaves the place behind following the rest of his house mates, Nick deciding to go through the wall to get away from the blood on the wall.

=0=0=0=

"As you all know, of course, Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago. The precise date is uncertain, but it was built over a thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying muggle eyes. Built because it was an age when magic was feared by the common muggles, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

Professor Binns, the most boring (dead) History of Magic professor, held the rapt attention of his classroom as he caved to Hermione's demands and was telling the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.

"For a few years the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But along the way, some disagreements sprang up between two of the founders, Slytherin and Gryffindor. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

Lightning was paying close attention to this.

"Now, the story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. According to the legend, Slytherin has sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his true heir arrived at the school. That heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber, unleash the horrors within, and use it to purge the school of all, whom by Slytherin's views, were unworthy to study magic." Professor Binns finished, looking annoyed and wanting to get back to his lesson.

Cue Hermione raising her hand.

"Professor? What exactly do you mean by unleashing the horror within?"

Binns looks more annoyed.

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," the ghost said offhandedly. "I can tell you right now however, the thing does not exist. There is no Chamber and no monster."

Students protested, with perfectly logical arguments.

"Enough! The chamber does not exist, and never does because if it had someone would have found it a long time ago. Now it is back to the original lesson."

Groans erupt, but Binns resumes his original lesson: Goblin Wars. Lightning was interested in the lesson about the "secret chamber". His mind was made up: he's going to investigate this situation.

=0=0=0=

"How in the world did I get roped into doing this?"

Seriously, how did he get in this? He didn't want to play Quiddich, but because the other Seeker for the team got a stomach virus, Oliver managed to force him to temporarily take place. He had promised (fingers crossed and hidden behind the back) he would only do this once and that was it.

The Quiddich Match of Gryffindor and Slytherin was a long one. Already fifteen minutes in and the score was with Gryffindor five points above Slytherin. Wait, make that even: Slytherin scored five points. Malfoy kept taunting him and was promptly ignored.

"I thought Harry didn't like to play?" Hermione asks Ron.

"Oliver managed to get Harry to play for one game because the Seeker was ill."

The game went well, until somehow one of the bludgers went crazy and tried to hit Lightning repeatedly despite the preteen flying to avoid getting stuck. Then the other Bludger went to kill him by smashing at his broom. Dumbledore reacted by blasting the bludgers out of the sky whilst Hooch called for time-out. Fred and George went to save Lightning but the preteen needed no saving. However, before the time-out was called he had caught sight of the Snitch and pocketing it. Finally Dumbledore nailed the bludgers out of the air and were charmed down, but not after one got a lucky hit on Lightning.

"Oh, that's nasty, Mr. Potter. I'll take care of that," said Lockhart.

His arm broke by the rogue bludger.

"No, I'll just go see the hospital ward."

"Nonsense, I can heal your arm. I've used this spell plenty of times before and it always works."

He moves his wand in intricate complex maneuvers- SPINNING HEEL KICK!

... Ouch... that has to hurt.

But because Lockhart was unable to perform the "spell" he tried to do, Lightning never had to experience Skelegrow. He still saw the nurse and Poppy was able to heal the fracture in the arm but Lightning had to wear a magically-protected cast for healing.

The next day the cast was gone because Lightning used a Cure spell out of the eyes of the school to "accelerate" the healing process. He got a detention nonetheless for his attack on a Professor. No one however managed to find out why the bludger during the game specifically targeted him, and using revealing spells on the rogue bludger showed no tampering. It was a mystery.

=0=0=0=

Dobby vanished in a crack, almost getting killed by a Thundara spell Lightning cast in anger. The blasted elf tried to kill him with a charmed bludger!

"Stupid thing... Next time I see it, I'm treating it as an enemy and slaying it."

Good news: Lightning unlocked Tier 2 of his Thunder attribute.

Now Dobby should be really scared for trying to "scare Harry Potter sir from Hogswart".

But during this little meet, Colin was found petrified.

Did I forget to mention Slytherin's heir was attacking the school since that first warning was found? For some reason Hermione and Ron were convinced it was Draco Malfoy that was the heir and Hermione was planning to brew something called Polyjuice Potion. In fact she was already working on that... in secret...


	4. Chapter 4

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

* * *

A Dueling Club sounded cool. What wasn't cool was it was Lockhart's idea, and he somehow got Professor Snape to go along with the whole idea. The two teachers dueled first as demonstration but Snape was victorious. The first time Lightning silently cheered for the git. After several students tried their luck, Lightning was paired with Malfoy who managed to summon a snake using Serpensortia.

Now, while Lightning could have done something such as hiss and reveal he was a Parselmouth, Lightning was smarter than that. Pulling out an ocarina he started playing a few melodious notes and "charmed" the snake into a calm state before gently picking it up much to the shock of everyone watching.

"It's not hard to tame a snake. Most snake charmers in India do similar to what I just did. Ask the Patils. They'll tell you."

And of course Lightning was correct in a sense. Snake charming was a practiced art, known well in the muggle world. Most wizard-born just don't know this. It would have been a nice lesson in learning different cultures, after all. So Malfoy was humiliated in the end, because he wanted Lightning to be scared of a big snake (the snake wasn't really big). Poor little git never knew Lightning was friendly with snakes.

It brought some rumors (mainly circulated by Malfoy) days later but not many believed them.

As for said snake, it was released back into the wild and never seen again.

=0=0=0=

Oliver tried to get Lightning to play again for the team. He only wanted to do it once and the bludger incident had Lightning become a spectator forever on days he would feel like seeing a game. Otherwise he did other things that were of better use for him (exercising when he felt he was slacking off, and focusing on school work). Oliver cried for losing the world's best Seeker...

As he cried, Lightning mused at the sight of spiders. He was watching the many small spiders (unlike the giants lurking the forest) move in a perfectly straight line, trying to escape the castle through a crack in the wall.

"Well, at least Ron can sleep better at night."

Ron's arachnophobia scared the boy greatly. With the spiders somehow marching out the castle, the twins would have to find other ways to prank their baby brother. He decided to do some quiet study in the library. That's where his new friends Tracey and Daphne were at. Then another petrification happened. This time the student, Justin what's-his-name was with Nearly-Headless Nick; the ghost was also petrified somehow. Quiddich was canceled for the rest of the year. If Oliver was a crying snob now, this news would have killed him.

=0=0=0=

Christmas came. Rocky-road fudge bars, a Quiddich History book, an eagle quill that looks like it cost 10 Galleons, toiletries stuff such as a toothbrush, paste, and a roll of dental floss (likely Hermione's gift since her parents are dentists), a new sweater courtesy of Mrs. Weasley, and a plum cake (also from Mrs. Weasley). From the Dursleys he got a toothpick that showed signs of having been overused... disgusting idiots. The gifts were nice and Lightning had gotten Ron and Hermione some gifts he thought would have been nice (and three Galleons each for them): for Ron he gave him a muggle chess set seeing the boy loved chess and Hermione got several (muggle) novels from great writers.

"How did you get this book?"

"Well I had Professor Lockhart sign my permission slip while he spoke about his days as a Seeker," she answered with a love-induced sigh.

Great... fangirl crush.

Ron gagged, which earned him an elbow in the gut. So it explains how Hermione knew how to brew Polyjuice Potion, a topic brushed upon a few weeks ago in Potions class. Said potion was secretly brewed in the girl's loo, where Myrtle was known to haunt.

"So... you really want to do this?"

"Yes! That slimy git has to be the heir! He bloody crowed about muggleborns being the next targets when Filch's cat was found, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. However, how ARE we going to do this, and who are we targeting?"

"Well you were busy with your things, mate so Hermione and I got hairs for our targets."

Turns out in the end Malfoy wasn't the heir. He wished he was though because he wanted to have fun cleansing the school of all mudbloods and make his father proud. OH, he wished Hermione would be a victim next. But Lightning learned about the wizarding prison called Azkaban from Malfoy when the boy said the Ministry raided his house last week. In the end the pinkette was very glad the potion wore off in time when he and Ron left the common room and back to the loo.

Then Lightning discovered that he still had his catgirl fetish: Hermione had somehow gotten the hairs of her target mixed with cat hair and grew cat ears and a tail. At first Hermione was hiding and didn't want to be seen until Lightning had enough, ripped the door open, and then discovered his returning fetish. Of course, it was nothing like the catgirls as predicted in anime, but Hermione's current predicament was similar. If Hermione was older... and Lightning was older, then maybe...

...

...

... Okay, moving on.

She was capable of recovering from it after she concocted a very believable white lie of spell gone wrong. But it didn't happen until around February. Serah and Snow were friendlier with the girl afterward for some odd reason.

=0=0=0=

T.M. Riddle... at least it's a nice-sounding name. Some of the name's he's heard in the Wizarding World were just plain bizarre at times. He recalled this particular name as being in the trophy room, a T.M. Riddle had a special award given to him or something for special services to the school. This book was found in Myrtle's toilet, wet and the girl was crying that someone threw it through her head before running off. When this reached Ron the red head said it could be evil.

"And how could this be evil, Ron?"

"Well, my father works at the Ministry, and he's seen books before that do strange things to other wizards and witches. There's one book that if you read it, you can never stop. Then there's another book where you read with one hand while walking around and you never bump into anything or anybody."

Lightning blinks. "Like that would ever happen." Then again, Serah was like that sometimes back in Bodhum before the whole l'Cie bull... minus the porn book thing. In another universe, Hatake Kakashi looks up from reading his Icha Icha Paradise. He looks left, then right. With a shrug, he continues to read his porn in view of the public whilst walking down the street.

Ron noticed the name on the book and spoke up about it, prompting Lightning to ask where and given proof that Ron WASN'T a dunderhead like Snape believed at times next to Neville. When Ron decided to leave Lightning alone, the preteen would finish his homework, and then curiosity peaked decides to write in the diary. It responded back.

He learns about the Chamber of Secrets and who was "responsible".

=0=0=0=

"The Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago. This book is fifty years old," said a fully-healed Hermione, tapping it excitedly.

"... So?"

Hermione was caught up in what Lightning was looking into, now not alone in this whole thing. She brought out a Revealer, which was a muggle eraser but magically charmed. Bought at Diagon Alley during the shopping day, she tried to reveal whatever was in the diary. Nothing. Lightning wisely said nothing. Theories were passed back and forth, but none of the constructed theories were what Lightning knew (from seeing the "memory" inside the diary). He could have said something, really, but Lightning really did not want his friends to get hurt if something terrible happened that forced him to use his l'Cie magic-type spells.

So the diary was forgotten for a time, and put away.

Valentine's Day however was a nightmare. He stared with undiluted horror at the pink monstrosity that was called the Great Hall. And guess who did this crap? Yes. Professor Lockhart. Lightning made a hasty retreat when one of the goblin-looking creatures bounced up (and it had loathed to do this too) in nappies and wings magicked on its back. He wanted to murder Lockhart, but he didn't feel like going to jail. So Lockhart golems in the Room of Requirement were used as anger management control.

=0=0=0=

Hermione was in the Hospital Wing, clutching a mirror in one hand and in the other hand a torn piece of paper which Lightning had taken. She was petrified.

"I'm going to kill whoever did this."

That was a promise.

=0=0=0=

Ever since the Chamber of Secrets stuff started up, Lightning (and company) has done investigations. His trek into the forest when Hagrid was arrested by the Ministry (to look busy) and he said aloud to "follow ta spiders" yielded the Acromantula Nest in the Forbidden Forest created by Aragog, Hagrid's pet spider as seen in the memory from the diary. He killed half the nest and was rescued by the magic car Ron stole to get to Hogwarts. The diary was then discovered stolen and his things scattered everywhere. He went in search for it, and after finding Myrtle again did she say something about seeing something strange coming from the (located) entrance. Dumbledore down the line was sacked from his position and the message delivered by a smug Lucius Malfoy. The old man left without incident, a whimsical smile on his face as if he knew a secret.

Finally, three days before the final exams, Ginny Weasley ended up missing and the heir struck again, with the message that her bones would lie in the chamber forever. This prompted classes to end and everyone locked in their houses. Thus we now arrive to right now. Lightning had overheard that Ginny was kidnapped by the heir and McGonagall told the professors the school will be shut down. He kept hidden behind the suits of armor as the conversation in the Staff Room continued, with the other professors asking Lockhart to "use his great magical skills" to find the chamber. The man obliged and left in a hurry. Lightning followed. Glad he did.

The man was going to leave the school, and was confronted by Lightning for it. The man admitted everything he says was a lie. Professor Lockhart was a memory stealer/eraser. The spell, Obliviate, erases a target's mind and new ones could be put in place. A spell heavily used on muggles when they see anything magical. Kind of abusive to tamper with memories; they ARE precious things to humans. His books were real but all of them were from others he memory charmed and stole for himself to make money.

Lightning did not let the man leave and threatened to beat the crap out of him and the man did flinch. Mainly 'cuz his wand was stolen and used against him. Lightning took Lockhart to Myrtle's haunted bathroom where he revealed his Parselmouth ability. It took awhile until the right word revealed the entrance. A brief thought occurred: Was Slytherin a sexual deviant? The chamber entrance was in a girl's restroom after all...

Anyway, Lockhart was pushed down into the tube first before telling Myrtle he'll return shortly and jumped right in. He was attacked by Lockhart seconds later after reaching the bottom, his wand taken back, and the man threatened his life. He deflected the memory erasing spell with Blazefire Saber, and somehow it rebounds and hits the man. For reasons unknown, it caused a cave-in and he was now cut-off from the man who can no longer recall his own name. Lightning went further into the tunnels not worrying for the man's safety, soon coming into the chamber itself and a door engraved with snakes.

Someone's life was in danger. Why care for a fraud that lied about his entire life?

Open.

And it does.

Stagnant water is seen, and it barely comes half an inch over the stone it covers. He soon reaches a large opening. A face was carved into the wall depicting an old man with a long beard twisting into snake-like arms... What the hell...?

"Ginny!"

The Weasley's little sister was unconscious and on her face in the dirty floor. Racing up to the girl he flipped her over. She felt cold to the touch and very pale. She was barely breathing.

"It's no use."

Lightning sets her down quickly and shoots to his feet.

A spell shot from the shadows and Lightning moves out of the way, casting a Thunder spell. A scream is heard, signaling he had hit the target. Out came a young man in his late teens with dark hair and wearing Slytherin colors on his school uniform.

"Who are you? What have you done to Ginny Weasley?"

"So you are Harry Potter. You look like a freak with the pink hair," the older teen said.

"It's all natural."

The teen smiled. "Whatever then. So, Mr. Potter... you are here to stop me?"

"... You're the heir?"

"Yes. I'm sure you remember what I showed you in my diary."

"Shit... you're Riddle?"

"I'm more than that."

And Lightning learned that Tom Riddle was really Voldemort as a teenager. This was a ghost of Riddle in his youth, somehow having absorbed the life force of Ginny to be projected in a solid corporal form. It was very clever, and evil...

"I was powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets after a month, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her, and she did back to me and it was very sweet. It was all her doing. She opened the chamber, commanding the beast inside the chamber to do my bidding through her." Riddle had a nasty smile on his face.

"So through her, you finished what Slytherin wanted to do: cleanse the school of what you call filth."

Riddle lets loose an evil laugh. The more the man spoke in his arrogant tone, the angrier Lightning got. This boy would grow up to become the person who everyone feared and were likely cowardly to stand up against sans the bold and the brave. Riddle was a pure manipulator-type, getting Ginny's defenses lowered to directly control her, causing all those petrifactions that should have been deaths if it weren't for coincidences. The deaths of the chickens and roosters in Hagrid's garden were all his idea, too. He even took credit for Dumbledore being driven out of the school.

"And now Harry Potter, because you now know everything, I am afraid that to finish my mission... you will have to die. Your unique magic you used earlier will have no effect on my monster."

And Riddle summons the monster by speaking in Parseltongue. It turned out to be what Hermione had discovered before being petrified: A giant ruddy Basilisk.

Lightning recalled the Basilisk info and its eyes would cause instant death. So he started running. Riddle ordered the snake to chase him down and it was a game of cat and mouse. A dangerous game of cat and mouse... Lightning was sending Blizzard spells but some of them miss since Lightning couldn't really see without risking a glance into killing eyes.

"Damn, what to do, what to do!"

He kept running, using the Haste spell to keep ahead of the monster snake seeking him out. He soon returned back out of the pipe-like maze and rushed away, jumping over the snake's sweeping tail. Riddle sent spells trying to clip Lightning for his pet to kill, but he was nimble. The Haste buff helped well.

"Take this!"

Riddle watched as a spell of some sorts had struck his great serpent and it hissed strangely as something affected it. Riddle had no idea what.

"What did you do?" he commands.

Lightning stayed quiet. Bravery, Faith, Vigilance, and the EnElement spells are not "learned" yet at this point in time. The same for most of his Saboteur spells as he is still training to properly unlock the rest, only having Deprotect and Deshell as the only available spells. He had casted a successful Deshell on the creature. Basilisk have highly resilient skin and is high impervious to most magic. The Deshell had weakened its resistance to magic.

_"KILL HIM!"_ Riddle hisses in the language of the snake.

A cry is heard and Fawkes arrived with the Sorting Hat which lands on his head. Fawkes meanwhile flew up, distracting the snake as Riddle screamed. Lightning saw in the shadows of the projected lights of the chamber Fawkes ripping the snake's eyes out. It was now blind.

"Alright! Time to go to work!"

"Curse your blasted bird, Potter!" Riddle shouts.

He was promptly shut up with a gunshot to the shoulder and the teen fell to the ground wailing in agony. Fawkes flew away as Lightning shifts the weapon, and goes into Synergist role. Shell and Protect are casted, and then a change into Ravager and he casts a Blizzard. The snake hisses in pain as the icy spell impacted it.

"Fawkes! Grab Ginny and get her off the watery ground!" he yells, hoping the phoenix was still there. His shouts were answered as the phoenix returned and snatched Ginny, taking her off the watery ground. Lightning raced around the ankle-deep circular pool in the center and leaps onto the statue head of Salazar.

"Hey, Potter! Quick, reach into my hat and grab the sword!"

"I have one already!" he tells off the Sorting Hat, not understanding the Sorting Hat had Gryffindor's Sword in his body (did it count as a body?).

The basilisk hisses and charges forward.

Bad idea.

"Thundara!"

The tier 2 spell impacts the snake. Because of the water on the ground, the damage was doubled and the giant snake was in tremendous pain. Riddle's screams are also heard, being electrocuted by the aftershocks of the spell radiating through the water. Sparkstrikes are fired in bullet form, before the ice attribute is used in physical attacking, Lightning getting close to the snake. He dodges the snake's twitching tail barely several times, continuing to damage the snake with Blizzard and Fire spells (the Deshell was still in effect) until finally the snake's large mouth was open. It was used for Lightning's final move to pierce through the roof of its mouth and into the brain, a Sparkstrike used. But he felt tremendous pain and cursed himself for not looking out good enough. In the process of killing it, he inadvertently got one of its poisoned fangs in his arm. He escaped as the snake collapsed and ceased moving.

"Damn... was too careless."

He fell to one knee, trying to shift into his Medic form but a sharp burst of pain crippled his mind.

Riddle is heard laughing, still in pain and twitching from the electrical shock, but laughing nonetheless.

"You got bit. You may have killed my pet, but it's too late. Did you know a Basilisk's venom can almost instantly kill humans? You got seconds to live."

Riddle was shot in the head by Lightning, and the teen collapsed. Then Blazefire Saber clatters to the ground as Lightning slumped.

"No... It can't end like this..."

A cry is heard and Fawkes flew down, setting Ginny down. He opens his blurry eyes and moans as Fawkes cried. Crystal-like tears drip down its beak, and into his open wound. A hiss is heard. Fawkes was healing Harry of the poison, saving his life. In no time Lightning was no longer inflicted by the Basilisk's poison, the venom neutralized by the healing properties of the tears. He shifts into Medic role regardless to cast an Esuna on himself followed by a Cure, and then looks to Riddle who was getting back up.

"Damn... you just won't die, huh?"

He saw the diary, and quickly grabbed it. Riddle screams when Lightning had the ingenious idea to use one of the fangs as a weapon. The poison basically destroys the diary, and thus destroys the spirit of the diary. Tom Riddle was no more. Enemy defeated. All of the stolen life energy returned to Ginny, who gained a healthy skin color once more and started to breathe.

The pink-haired preteen was glad Ginny didn't die in this ordeal. He casts a Cure on her just in-case, and then returns to his Commando role.

"Ginny, are you okay?"

"W-Where am I?"

She opens her eyes, and sees the pink hair of one Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived.

"The diary, Ginny... you're inside the Chamber of Secrets."

She gasped. "I'M SO SORRY! IT WAS THE DIARY! IT CONTROLLED ME SOMEHOW!"

"I know what's happened and its okay, Ginny. I saved you from dying here. I destroyed the diary and also killed the Basilisk."

"What?"

She looks to what Lightning pointed at, and she paled. That was one big-arse snake.

"Harry... Thank you," she cries, hugging him tightly.

Lightning smiles a bit, a sigh of relief let out. Ginny hears a melodious trill and sees Dumbledore's phoenix.

"Wow, he's beautiful."

"Dumbledore's phoenix... when I killed that snake I got fang in my arm and the poison almost killed me, but Fawkes cried into my wound and... well, his tears healed me. I forgot that a Phoenix has the ability to heal all wounds and injuries with its tears."

Fawkes trills with pride, eliciting smiles from the two children. Ginny was helped off the dirty watery floor, and Lightning made sure to grab his weapon and holster it. Ginny was in awe of what Harry had just put away.

"Ginny... we should get out of here."

"But how?" she asks.

Fawkes trills again, and flew around them before they all vanish in a trail of flames. Phoenix Fire Teleportation. Oh, wait... Lockhart was still in the chamber. Well, he was rescued a short time later, with no memory of himself. He would be admitted into Saint Mungos, and it becomes his new permanent residence. Dumbledore had returned, as the School Board decided Dumbledore was better to be back to handle the heir of Slytherin situation. Ginny was saved from mortal peril and her family was very happy that Harry Potter saved their youngest.

The diary retrieved thanks to Fawkes was proved to be the culprit, a dangerous ghostly parasite it was passed off as. Lucius Malfoy did not like that when he found out, and Lightning learned the crazy elf belonged to said bastard of a man. He trucked Lucius into freeing Dobby, and Lucius ran off after trying to attack Lightning but was repelled by the freed House Elf (this happened of course outside Hogwarts out of anyone's eyes). When Dobby turned to thank Lightning, he only asked Dobby not to do crazy things again and then asked him if he would be willing to work at the Hogwarts Kitchens.

That is where Dobby is now.

Exams canceled in celebration for Harry Potter: Awarded for Special Services for Hogwarts and solving the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. The only ones not happy were those of Malfoy's groupie. All the petrified victims had been cured, too. Needless to say, Lightning was glad no one was dead. Because of this Lightning and Ron have now really bonded as good friends because Ginny was saved from a fate worse than death. Oh, and Hagrid was freed from Azkaban, and proven innocent of events that happened when he was in school as a kid fifty years ago.

School ended on a good note, and no one knows that Lightning was a secret Parselmouth. Well, Lockhart knew, but with his memory erased, no one will learn. Then Sirius Black escaped Azkaban Prison during that summer.

* * *

**Year Two end. Time for what is my favorite of the HP series: the Prisoner of Azkaban arc.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

* * *

Lightning noticed the man sitting in the corner of the Leaky Cauldron. He was twirling his finger around a spoon in a cup of coffee, and said spoon was stirring the drink. In his other hand was a Stephen Hawking book, _A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes_. It was time for another shopping trip of his third year at Hogwarts and Lightning opted to go on his own. In fact, since Marge Dursley was at the house and the woman was a horrid frigid bitch (same for the dog that should be humanely euthanized for the safety of small children), he packed his stuff and left.

For a quick recap, Lightning got some letters from his friends on his birthday and gifts, and learned the Weasleys won a lottery draw from the Ministry and went on a family vacation in Egypt. Hermione's in France on a vacation with her family. They promise to meet with him on the last two weeks before school began and go shopping. Hagrid's letter was a bit cryptic as the man said his happy birthday wishes, and said something about a surprise for the year. Hopefully said surprise won't be dangerous.

On his long walk to the Leaky Cauldron, he had encountered a large black dog in the bushes, and Lightning took out her familiar dagger which he found in the Trust Vault last year. He didn't expect a big BANG and a triple-decker bus to appear out of nowhere. That's how he got to the Leaky Cauldron: he learned about the Knight Bus, the wizarding transportation for stranded magicals in England. Paying the fee to Stan Shunpike without the extra crap, the bus was off.

Lightning learned from Stan about the escaped criminal who went by the name Sirius Black. Azkaban was mentioned and it was supposed to be inescapable. Somehow Sirius escaped and the Ministry of Magic was very concerned for the safety of wizards and witches everywhere in England. Lightning was concerned. He didn't voice it, but because of his good memory, he had vague recollections of a man, two of them, who he used to call "pahfoo" and "woony" as an infant.

"Merlin curse these muggles! Why must their cars always get in my way?" the driver would complain.

The bus arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, nudged one of the muggle cars and its car alarm went off. Lightning got off quick with his trunk and his pets, and the bus vanished with a crack, just as a wizard from inside the pub had flicked his wand at the alarm-blaring vehicle.

Beep-beep...

Silence...

But since he was there at the Leaky Cauldron early before his friends, he decided to go shopping for his supplies after paying for a room with his leftover Galleons. Tom was easy and "lessens" the boarding price, which Lightning was grateful for. The morning came and after a wonderful breakfast cooked by Tom, Lightning opens the doorway to Diagon Alley and walks through.

The alley was as busy as ever for the early goers. No doubt Professor McGonagall was there likely with the new muggleborns that discovered they had magic. Having let his hair grow a bit longer this summer, his little scar on his temple was hidden. Of course the strangest thing: over the summer his blindly-noticeable scar was starting to heal after several years of it being a glaring eye sore. What Lightning never knew was that when the Dark Lord tried to kill him but failed, his death he accidentally created a final Horcrux and that small shard of soul energy was implanted, marking the soul that makes him famous in this world.

When he was bitten by the Basilisk, the poison ran its course through his body. That sharp stabbing pain in his head when trying to switch roles; that was actually the poison being corrosive to the soul fragment, which destroyed the tiny shard and thus free Harry of being one of the Dark Lord's soul anchors to the mortal plane. And when he survived thanks to Fawkes' healing tears, the lingering curse was washed away. The rest of the healing was natural. Well, there was another scar Lightning has in the form of the mark in his arm from the impaled fang. Battle scar it was treated by the thirteen year old.

... Yeah, Lightning was thirteen years old now. And he was not looking forward to the awkwardness of puberty once again. At least he's not a woman... just guess, ladies and gentlemen.

Heading to the bank first of all, Lightning calmly waited until he came up to Griphook's teller booth, and went through the usual hub stuff. He took Lightning to his vault. Now, normally you'd believe, he's a minor, he needs an adult with him. For some reason the goblins knew that the Boy-Who-Lived was very different. They didn't voice it, but they trusted their instincts to not do anything rash with the pink-haired human. Especially since in 1991 the boy took out of his Trust Vault a device that wasn't in there at all, and the following year a very strange science fictional knife.

The max amount of money withdrawn, Lightning leaves the bank after thanking Griphook for his quick services, and heads to the bookshop first.

Chaos. That's what you can call it.

The owner of the book store and his assistant were having trouble with what looked like furry books with teeth. Looking into his list, and the words on one of the biting books, _Monster Book of Monsters_ was a required book for the school this year.

"What in the name of Etro?"

One of the teeth-clad books jumped at him, and by reflex Lightning had kicked the thing away and it slams the wall with a pathetic whimper.

"These things are a right pain!" said Mr. Flourish, struggling with one biting book with his wand and casting strong binds to keep the mouth shut.

Lightning had enough of the fangy books causing chaos. With his wand drawn, he swishes and casts the levitation charm on all the books. They float in the air unable to move or bite anything, until with a sharp thrust down, all the books impact the grounds with painful hits. Now instead of snarls, growls, and spittle and bites, whimpers and sad cries are heard.

"Should lock these things up in cages so no innocent child gets bitten or worse," Lightning tells the shop keep and his assistant. Both were amazed, as well as humbled THE Harry Potter helped solve a problem. Lightning soon left with his book list filled, free of charge.

A refill of potions ingredients, owl and cat treats for Hedwig, Snow, and Serah, and finally heading to the clothing shop for a robe refitting. That's where he bumped into Tracey and Daphne.

"Hello girls," he greets the two upon entering the shop.

"Hello, Harry," Tracey greets the teen. "What are you doing here?"

"I left my home early. My relatives have family visiting and she's a horrid bitch, same with her bulldog. Little beast should be put down since it enjoys biting kids."

Madam Malkin sent a light glare at Lightning for the language he used but said teen didn't care.

"Aunt Marge is a muggle, doesn't know about magic, and is in the belief my mother and father was drug-using alcoholics that were killed in a car accident they caused. Uncle Vernon's lies are just that though, lies. I would love to correct them but... I don't feel like messing with ignorant people."

Tracey and Daphne glance to each other, and then back to Lightning.

"Why would your uncle say such a thing?"

"He hates magic. My aunt hates magic too. Real jealous she's a squib and my mum, my aunt's sister, was muggleborn. They once tried to beat the magic out of me. I fought back. Now we just go about ignoring one another. I'm hoping to just get myself emancipated in the muggle world, and then I leave and find a place I can live on my own."

Meow.

The girls are distracted by the two cat heads the pop up from the robe pockets that Lightning wore (his robes from last year). The girls gush over the cats, prompting Lightning to smile.

"Snow, Serah, you two behave, and don't mess with Madam Malkin's stuff."

He scoops the two young cats from the pockets and sets them on the floor.

"Oh, they're cute!" Tracey giggles.

"When I was a kid, I found these two on a cold rainy day in an overturned cardboard box trying to keep dry and warm. I took these two back home and raised them. I didn't know they were half-kneazle bred cats until I got my owl Hedwig from the pet shop, and the owner had told me what they were. These two love me since I have rescued them from the cold wet alley downtown. They're obedient and listen well. Playful too."

Daphne brushes up a small smile, and Tracey wanted to cuddle them but still was in the final touches of having her robes made by the assistant of Madam Malkin.

Daphne and Tracey were soon finished with the fitting, and Lightning was attended to by Malkin and her assistant. The two girls pick up Snow and Serah and the cats enjoyed the attention they were receiving. Lightning invited his two Slytherin friends for ice cream, and they accepted. The robes were finished, paid for, and the three enjoyed nice cold treats, sans a distraction from upcoming first years that have been told the Harry Potter story, saw said teen, and well Lightning was only being polite to the little ones. He had ignored the look he got from McGonagall (the first years' escort into Diagon Alley).

"Harry, do your Gryffindor friends know you are friends with two Slytherins?" Daphne asks.

"Not yet. I was actually hoping to tell them when the Weasleys return from their vacation in Egypt, and Hermione from France with her parents," said Lightning. "I was going to do my shopping with them, but since I was here early I decided to get it over with and do some light reading for the upcoming year."

"You know they will likely bring up the Gryffindor and Slytherin house rivalry."

"That I don't even understand. I mean I heard from some of my fellow house mates that Slytherin was the sign of evil. Sure the bastard who murdered my parents was from Slytherin, but that doesn't mean if an eleven year old is sorted into Slytherin does not equal evil. How can an eleven year old be evil? Isn't that just stupid to think such ways?"

Tracey and Daphne agreed. At least there are SOME people who think logically.

"I expect some complaints, but I'll weather the storm. And I won't be alone since I have Snow, Serah, and Hedwig to keep me company until my other intended company arrive."

"Wouldn't one of them go to where you live?" Daphne questioned.

Lightning answers with, "Only Hermione knows where I live, but not the Weasleys."

The final two weeks of the month, Lightning had greeted them by reading a Stephen King novel.

He had told them he was at Diagon Alley and met two other friends from Hogwarts. He told them they were from Slytherin. As expected he had been met with looks of surprise and some complaints from Ron that Slytherins were evil. Even Gred and Forge had said that most Gryffindors and Slytherins never been friends. He retaliates with, "How can an eleven year old child going into Slytherin become evil?"

They had no rebuttal.

Eventually, Lightning went shopping with Ron and Hermione and the others. Since he has already gone shopping ahead of time, he was there as a background character. Hermione bought a cat though named Crookshanks. It likes to harass Scabbers. This would be a serious of arguments between Ron and Hermione...

Oh, and Percy Weasley is now a Prefect.

=0=0=0=

Hours have passed since the train left the station. That morning Mr. Weasley had pulled Lightning aside and told him about something that was happening, which had the Ministry running around overworked. He had already known about Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban, but for some reason the man was in the belief he would go and seek the man out. Lightning would have no idea WHY, but just to ease Arthur's conscious he promised not to.

So other than a run-in with a little ferret annoyance and his two boyfriends and pug, nothing much happened aside Crookshanks, Snow, and Serah just staying together as a group, and Ron playing some Wizards Chess with Neville. Suddenly, the train was slowing down causing commotion. A jolt signaled the train stopping completely. Something strange was happening, and that feeling pure wrongness was welling up. Not to mention it was getting colder than it should to the point light frost began to show itself.

"Something's wrong," Lightning said. Hermione backed a bit as her friend took his trunk down from the compartment above, and she watches him take out his weapon thing.

"Bloody hell, what is that?" Ron and Neville blurted out.

"Protection," was the curt response.

The door opens on the left side and in came two of Harry's Slytherin friends.

"Harry! What's going on?" called Tracey, pulling Daphne along.

"Trouble, Trace. Can you feel it?"

"Harry who are they?"

"Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, my friends from Slyth-"

Bang-Bang!

The windows rattled as a wispy coldness breezed through, and suddenly horrible memories spring forward. The reactions were different for them, as Ron clung to himself and was muttering about feeling very cold and spiders. For Lightning she felt the worse of it.

Memories of when she was angry and cold, not allowing many into her heart except Serah. Her anger at Snow, because of his foolishness of wanting to save her sister. The arrogance of the man for wanting to marry Serah. And then dark memories of all the nightmares and trials that almost ended her life on more than one occasion. Being erased from the timeline and drawn into Valhalla. The voices, the screams. HIS voice taunting her as they dueled furiously across Valhalla. The shadows taunting him for Serah's fated death. But amongst them... was Lily's voice crying, and the roar of the Dark Lord's voice as the Killing Curse is cast, and her final scream as her life was torn from her body...

"Serah," Lightning whispers harshly, trying to block out the nightmares flooding his mind. Those trying to remain awake heard that but Lightning suddenly gained a boost of courage. The door to the large compartment was opened and a skeletal hand cling the edges, and a black shadowy robe drifts in, pure frost exhaling from the hooded figure. A whisper of something dark, unintelligible... evil...

Angry at this creature drawing up bad memories, he charges forward stabbing the creature. It lets out a surprised wail of agony. Blazefire Saber was ripped out and then another slash sends it fleeing. The memories of bad were going away, and Lightning can no longer hear mixed in them the voice of his pleading mother begging for him to live.

"Away with you foul creature!"

Blazefire Saber was swung but the creature was agile as it went out the door. Lightning followed despite the shouting of the adult who was now awake, wand drawn.

"Fira!"

The creature shrieks as its robes were caught aflame. The tattered robes burned away fast revealing the creature under it was a skeletal corpse-looking thing. It was nightmarish. Eyes almost glowing, Lightning attacked this exposed dark creature with a Thundara spell. The bright flash of lightning had all eyes to their windows as the creature explodes into dust and crystallized bone remains.

The aura of cold grew intense as more of the creatures started to swarm. Their number was reduced by one, and they found a liable threat. You see, they were known as Dementors. They are the prison wardens of Azkaban with a mission: hunt down Sirius Black. They now assumed Lightning was Sirius Black and now flew at him in attack.

Braving the coldness seeping into his very bones, Lightning ran, shifting to Synergist role. He had been training during the summer so he was stronger. A buff of Faith augments his magical prowess. The Dementors were about to attack again when they weren't warded no more by the powerful but strange fire spell, until a flash of brilliant light shines from the train door. There stood the same sleeping man. The Dementors retreat from the light but weren't actually fleeing.

Lightning saw that and casts Libra on the man's wand. The information hit his brain, detailing the name, Expecto Patronum. A defensive light spell that is very effective against creatures called Dementors, empowered by memories of happiness or feelings of positive emotion. It even detailed its pronunciation. Weapon (wand slotted) in hand, he was ready to do a complete gamble.

"Shit... Sazh you better hope your luck has rubbed off on me."

The Dementors returned in full force, and just as the man was about to cast again, Lightning beat him to it.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The happiest memory Lightning can scrounge up was the joy of when Orphan was defeated, her fate and the fate of her friends were changed, and Cocoon (and his dear sister Serah) was saved. In a brilliant flash of light, a large warrior very familiar to him sprung from the gunblade, armed with the shield and a double-bladed weapon.

"Odin," he whispers.

The Patronum form of Odin charges the Dementors and cuts through them like paper, their painful shrieks lighting the air. Patronum-Odin did not let a single one escape as all the Dementors were struck down by the silvery blade of the conjured warrior. Many injured, they retreated before they could really be destroyed. Lightning collapsed but Patronum-Odin caught him in the nick of time. He was carried back to the train, and hefted into the arms of the surprised man.

Without another word, Patronum-Odin fades into wisps of silvery light.

Lightning was unconscious. After all, it was a strong wizarding spell and not many could even produce a corporeal Patronas like he had done, and by sheer luck alone.

=0=0=0=

A Dementor was effectively killed. This was shocking news because as far as the Wizarding World was concerned, a Dementor can never be killed. And yet one did. The other Dementors which checked the trains for Sirius Black were thwarted and forced to retreat when they decided to attack Lightning on the belief he was Sirius Black. News of course reached the adults (well those in the Wizarding World) and the Daily Prophet; outrage was spoken that children were exposed to such dark creatures in the first place.

But the students on the train wouldn't stop about seeing Harry Potter defeat a horde of Dementors with ease. He awakens a day later, because magical exhaustion sucked. When asked how he knew the spell that would ward Dementors away, he cleverly lied saying that he read up such a spell in a book at the bookstore in Diagon Alley. He knew that no one would understand what a Libra spell was, especially since such a spell doesn't exist in the Wizarding World.

Dumbledore announces the two changes in staffing during the year: Professors Lupin and Hagrid. Lupin was this year's DADA teacher, while Hagrid has been made the Care of Magical Creatures teacher in lieu of the retirement of Professor Kettleburn. Still, despite the dangers of what the Dementors could do, Dumbledore also announces that Dementors are to be stationed around the school, as a precaution against Black. All students were given explicit warnings about said dark creatures, how to avoid them, travel in packs, and if a teacher tells them what to do when a Dementor was near, you listen.

Malfoy tried to make fun of Lightning because of his initial reaction to seeing a Dementor. Lightning just gave the boy the middle finger. For being a wizard, he didn't know Lightning had just given the silent version of "bloody piss off". And Lightning heard the rumors spread by the school. He just didn't listen to many of them (half of them sounded much like Lockhart's lies).

=0=0=0=

Lessons went off regardless of Lightning's little brush with death. Old subjects, new subjects. One such new subject was in the North Tower for Divination Class yielded by Professor Trelawney. She greeted everyone with a misty-sounding voice, and implementing a flair for dramatics as she described what her class was all about. Lightning wondered why he signed up for this class last year... then remembered Ron saying it was an "easy class". This woman was probably worse than Lockhart; maybe they were cut from the same cloth. Hopefully the woman doesn't have some hidden ego like Lockhart when he was exposed as a fraud.

"DEATH!" the woman all but shouted, getting all attention drawn to him. "You have seen death! The Grim!"

She pointed (rather dramatically) into his tea leaves in the cup. Some gasps are heard, the loudest Lavender and Parvati. All Lightning saw was a mush of crap. Yeah... it was near the end of the first lesson and she brought this up all of a sudden after peering over his shoulder.

"... The only thing I see is crap at the bottom of my cup," was the rebuttal.

When brought to McGonagall about this the next day in Transfiguration Class...

"Then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class."

Lightning raises an eyebrow. "So she's not an insane lunatic that needs to be bundled in white straight jackets and locked away in a magically-enforced padded room?"

=0=0=0=

Malfoy almost was murdered for pissing off the Griffon, calling it an unintelligent beast. And despite Lightning knowing people would ask WHY he saved the git, could not let an ignorant boy's ego get him killed. Out came Blazefire Saber blocking the claws of Buckbeak, the name of the Griffon of Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. Hagrid finally kicked in and started to calm the bird down as Malfoy was whining and complaining that his arm was broken.

Madam Pomfrey confirmed he had no broken arm, and was just making a fuss for nothing. Hagrid would have to switch lessons because the Griffon scare had other students be wary. But it WAS an excellent lesson: If you insult a Griffon, its pride would be injured and will in response fight back. Hell, even Lightning knew not to insult a creature known for pride. The boy would try to milk this up by wearing a conjured cast, but Professor McGonagall put a stop to that when making inquiries to Poppy regarding the so-called "broken arm".

=0=0=0=

DADA with Professor Lupin started a bit odd. The poltergeist Peeves had tried to seal off the classroom by using muggle chewing gum. Instead, a unique little spell by Lupin had it dislodged and somehow right up the ghost's nose. Several students laugh as the humiliated ghost flies away in a hurry, cursing Lupin with certain foul words they shouldn't be pivy to hearing.

"Well class, come inside."

The class had walked inside where Professor Snape was just finished setting up something. It was a trunk... which jumped and banged inside although the locks kept whatever it was inside.

"Now class, today we will be having a unique lesson with some hands-on experience. This spell is useful for when you encounter magical creatures called Boggarts. Now, can anyone tell em what a Boggart is?"

A couple students raised their hands. Professor Lupin points to Hermione who had her hand up politely.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"A Boggart is a creature that shows a person's fear," answers Hermione.

"Correct. Five points to Gryffindor," He rewards the girl, who smiled, "Boggarts show a witch or wizard their fear. It is possible to combat against a Boggart if you know this spell. It's called _Riddikulus_."

The trunk jumps again.

"Inside the trunk which Professor Snape acquired for us is an actual Boggart. Now, all of you can form a line and ready your wands. I will be standing to the side."

Lightning decided to hang out in the back, as several students shuffled around trying to get up in the front of the line. Eventually everyone was lined up, starting with Neville whose fear was Professor Snape being his antagonistic self and staring down Neville with hatred.

"You dunderhead!"

"_Riddikulus_!" Neville shouted eyes almost closed as the spell impacted the Boggart-Snape.

Suddenly his robes changed into a type of old woman's dress with flowers, thick feathery frills, and Madam Longbottom's vulture-made hat she enjoys wearing. Laughs filled the room, as many outside Slytherin have always liked to see this happen to the professor in a prank or something. Lightning just smiled at the humility of Snape in a dress.

The next student behind Neville walked up, and the Boggart transformed into a twelve foot ladybug. One spell later, and some more laughter echoed as it transformed from a bug, to Professor Trelawney wearing a Ladybug costume. Only Parvati and Lavender didn't find it funny (being Trelawney worshippers). The next three students were unable to properly defend themselves, though one managed to cast it; it just wasn't effective enough.

Hermione's fear was about failing her classes and getting failing grades, and barely managed to cast the spell correctly; the McGonagall-Boggart was realistic. Ron's fear of spiders had him shout almost like a girl. Malfoy's fear was for some reason getting the daylights beaten out of him by Boggart-Lightning. Bad enough Malfoy himself was beaten up by the Boggart until Crabbe shoved the Boggart away. It transformed into dragon dung and he was unable to cast the spell right. Same with Goyle...

Most of the students in the classroom had their chance until Lightning was the last one left. He steps up, but then Professor Lupin cut him off. He didn't like that. Risking getting a detention for grabbing the man, he whirls the professor around.

"I think it's rude to cut in front like that," he tells the man.

_Besides, I would like to see what my fear really is..._

"Harry... I mean, Mr. Potter-"

"If you're worried that my fear is Voldemort," Insert students flinching/gasping at the mention of the Dark Lord's name, "I don't fear that prick. Now step aside."

Professor Lupin reluctantly did when Lightning's glare into his eyes didn't waver. The Boggart in the shape of a large bird of prey vanished in a wisp of black smoke. Lightning's eyes narrowed, as a soft male's voice echoed around the room.

_"Are you afraid?"_ the voice spoke out in the room.

It was HIS voice. Caius Ballard...

_"You should be afraid. You failed to save your sister."_

In a swirl of black smoke, a young woman appeared with the same shade of pink hair as Lightning's. Only her eyes when they opened were as black as the night.

"You didn't save my Lightning. Why? Why didn't you save me?" the young woman pleaded with bloody tears running down her cheeks.

_I did save you..._

_"The seas of chaos are wrought with destruction. The goddess saw her fate to die when she interfered," _another voice spoke. It was the tone of a young girl.

The pink-haired girl explodes into smoke, only to reform into a completely different girl enwreathed with a shadowy-like aura around the body. Almost like ghostly flames that licked along the skin. She casted a look into Lightning, who faltered a bit, but his grip on his wand tightened.

"In the end, even with the paradox resolved, she was still destined to die." Then the voice changed to the male's once more. "And in the end, you could do nothing to save her from her fate of death."

POOF! The girl explodes and reforms into a tall man with purple hair and a tight-fitting purple bodysuit, with some feathers in his hair, a dark look in his eyes, and with a large unholy-looking sword connected onto his back without any straps or hangers.

"Lightning, you failed regardless of what you did to prevent Serah's death. My death meant the death of the Goddess Etro. Even as her chosen warrior, you failed! Chaos swallowed Valhalla and Gran Pulse! It was a new world which Etro could not control."

Lightning snarls.

"Without Etro's power giving you strength, you are weak! And now you shall die at my hand!"

Lightning quickly dispels the disillusion charm, revealing his Blazefire Saber he carried on his person and brought it up just in time to block the heavy chop from Boggart-Caius's sword. All of the students screamed and were backing away. Professor Lupin moved in to intercept this from becoming even more dangerous. Whatever the hell happened was something beyond control. But a sudden thrum of magic was felt in the air for a brief moment...

BOOM!

A shockwave sent the students crashing into the walls, into each other, and into the stuff inside the classroom used for today. The small explosion was heard in half the castle. Dumbledore was already racing towards the source, wand drawn. Professor Lupin groaned, feeling a hard pain in his shoulder; it was dislocated from its socket.

None of them knew what the bloody hell was going on. Who was this stranger calling Harry Potter "Lightning"? Lightning quickly recovered and has pushed Boggart-Caius back with a missed sword swipe. But that was a feint. He charged in with a battle cry, sending him smashing through the stain-colored window. Without another thought Lightning dove out of the window just as Professor Dumbledore burst into the room, wand pointed just to see Lightning's feet exit the broken window.

"CAIUS!" those still awake heard the angry cry.

Boggart-Caius smiles as energy swallows them up and they end up deep inside the Forbidden Forest. Lightning recovered and got back onto his feet, just as Caius appears overhead and chops down. That attack was blocked.

"Weak!" He growls, shoving Lightning away and stabbing his blade into the ground. The shockwave of dark magic rips the ground and explodes around Lightning as well as several trees. The Boggart in the memory of Caius Ballard smiles darkly.

Lightning groaned, going into Medic and casting a Cure spell twice on himself to dampen the pain he was feeling.

Hoof beats are heard as centaurs from close-by had heard the explosion and investigated. Caius brought his weapon before him once again, walking towards Lightning as with his free hand several Ruin spells bombard the teen. Lightning moans weakly. A cast Fire spell was blocked by the weapon Boggart-Caius yields.

"Stop right there!" bellows one of the centaurs, possibly the leader.

Caius smiles, but ignores them. He simply swings his weapon at them releasing a shockwave of black magic that tore at the ground at their feet, startling the herd. He focuses his attention back on Lightning, and lifts Lightning's head by his chin with the sharp tip of his blade. The weakened warrior looks up into Caius's eyes, swirling with dark energy.

"Without Etro to help you, you have become weak. You are nothing."

A shrilling cry of a familiar phoenix rips the very air.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

In comes Albus Dumbledore, armed with his wand. The magical aura emanating from his body was heavily oppressive. This kind old man had transformed into the very wizard of whom Voldemort was afraid of next to death itself. Albus Dumbledore has become the man who had fought, and defeated Gellert Grindelwald during the war.

Boggart-Caius chuckles with humor in his tone. He still did not look away from Lightning's face.

"You are too late. She will die at my hand."

But Caius was summoned away, ripped through the air by Dumbledore's casted spell. He was unable to prepare a proper defensive and slammed right into the tree Albus side-stepped, losing his sword in the process as it flew aside from his hand. Fawkes flew to Lightning, trilling softly to the teen as Dumbledore focused his eyes onto the stranger. Boggart-Caius made one mistake: taking his eyes off his prey.

"I will return..."

And poof goes Caius, transforming into Adrianna Dumbledore. Caius's sword vanished as well into wisps of black smoke. Dumbledore barely flinched, as he coldly spoke the repelling spell at the Boggart. With another flick, the Boggart was destroyed. The danger now gone, Dumbledore's grandfatherly visage returns and he races over to Harry, where Fawkes was trilling to the unconscious boy.

"Dumbledore."

The Headmaster turns his head to the centaur herd. Some of them sported injuries from a type of explosion spell. Their leader, Bane, walks up to him.

"What in the name of the stars was that... that thing? It was no human."

"I am not sure..."

Dumbledore casts another look to James and Lily's injured son.

"I must take Harry to the Infirmary and fast, Bane. Will you be alright?"

Bane grunts. "We will recover. Just... find out what that creature was. It wasn't human. It felt... evil..."

Satisfied, he summons the strange weapon that he once confiscated in Harry's first year. Holding it tight by its strange handle, he levitates Harry and quickly ran out of the forest heading back to the castle. No doubt the entire school was going to wonder what the strange explosion was that everybody had heard or felt depending on location. For an old man, he sure could sprint fast. He reached the steps where Minerva was.

"Hold onto this Minnie dear," he tells the old woman, handing the weapon to her and escorting Harry's floating body off to the Hospital Ward.


	6. Chapter 6

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

* * *

Lightning opens his eyes. It was very quiet as his eyes adjusted and he looks around. It was a white sterile environment with soft browns to accommodate the walls, various empty white beds, and a crisp clean scent in the air. Yup. He was in the school's hospital ward.

Then he remembered. The Boggart. It had played at his fears alright. It mocked Serah's death, because she had the Eyes of Etro. The voice of the Seeress, Yeul, taunting him, and then the Boggart took the shape and power of Caius Ballard himself and attacked. He thought he was going to be killed. Even if it was not the real Caius, he was correct: he was weak. He had a lot of power and fought hard to save the world, and then prevent the death of the universe. And when he was reincarnated, he was back to before his days being cursed to the fate most l'Cie would have faced had he and his comrades not change it.

Lightning rarely cursed. But this was suitable for what he was feeling right now.

"Fuck."

"Mr. Potter! Language!" scolds Madam Pomfrey, the schools mediwitch.

"It's worth it for how I'm feeling," Lightning said, trying to get up but the mediwitch pushes him back down into the bed.

"No, Mr. Potter, just lie down and relax. You have gone through a terrifying ordeal."

Lightning reluctantly listened to the woman when she kept staring at him with that look most nurses would use on rowdy patients. Then again, it could have been worse: Madam Pomfrey could have simply repeated in a calmer voice for Harry Potter to lay down and rest, while for some strange reason projecting an aura of killing intent that promise unholy pain if refused a second time.

Lightning was released later that evening just in time for dinner. It was a bit quiet because no one would stop staring at him as he silently ate his dinner next to Ron and Hermione. His weapon confiscated by McGonagall (after being handed it by Dumbledore) vanished from her desk and back in Lightning's possession. He made a habit to keep it with him at all times and under illusion charms so no one would notice it. Any and all rumors about the incident between him and the Boggart-Caius were ignored and his friends eventually dropped it when Lightning told them to stop.

Hermione was taking all classes this year. Lightning wondered how it was possible and the girl wouldn't really explain how. Just make excuses before deterring the conversation elsewhere.

=0=0=0=

Lightning was asked to see Professor Lupin, and the man was trying to make inquiries over what had happened the other day in DADA. But Lightning was not forthcoming with releasing such information. They wouldn't understand much if he started speaking about knowing the man simply because he was the reincarnation of a woman from another world or universe entirely. So he basically lied that it was a nightmare come to life from an old muggle TV show he saw when he was a kid. A complete lie. Lupin believed it to be true. As Lightning left, Snape brushed past him with a goblet with bluish smoke wafting from the liquid within. He put it to memory, but still left.

Later that night after dinner, most Gryffindors saw a horrible sight. The Fat Lady was missing, her portrait all torn to shreds by a dagger or something sharp. When she was found eventually by several Professors, she babbled about Sirius Black having infiltrated the school and trying to break in. Sirius was not found, but the discarded parchment was. All Gryffindors were brought to the Great Hall, along with the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Slytherins. Everyone was forced to sleep in the Great Hall that night while an intensive search was made for Sirius.

He was not found...

=0=0=0=

Because of the Dementor threat Lightning was being watched more than usual as the days bled away. The castle can be cold during the snowy months but with the Dementors hanging around searching ever so much for Sirius Black, the air was going to be much colder when snow finally came. There was an incident beforehand that involved rogue Dementors that invaded a Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match and disrupted the game.

They for some reason targeted Lightning specifically and the teen was saved from having to reveal his l'Cie magic by Dumbledore whose Patronas was as large as his phoenix companion, Fawkes. The brilliance of the silver light blasted the three Dementors away. Lightning recovered from the brief cold aura that brushed his mental defenses. No student has ever seen Albus Dumbledore so angry before when the Dementors were no longer determined to go after the Boy-Who-Lived. Chocolate is delicious though. Lightning preferred hazelnuts in his chocolate bars.

There was one time when Professor Lupin was absent and Snape took over until the man returned. For some reason Lupin's class work was ignored and the man had the class learn about werewolves. You'd understand what's going on, right? Anyway, the winter months have officially begun. Third Year students and above have special privileges to go to the local village, Hogsmeade, via a signed permission slip from their parents/guardians. Lightning would have enjoyed visiting the village, but Vernon or Petunia would not sign it. In fact Vernon burned it in the fire place. Ron and Hermione promised to bring him back some things such as chocolate or candy. Meanwhile, Lightning decided to go train in privacy.

=0=0=0=

Once the door closed behind him, Lightning walks across the grassy plains of the Archylte Steppe reconstructed within the Room of Requirement. The false blue skylines, the clouds, the distance of mountains and cliffs, and the bright sunlight shining down as all manners of monsters run rampant and free doing whatever they pleased. Of course several of these monsters were holograms created by magic. But some were reconstructed golems after Lightning had fully protected his desire to be back on Gran Pulse to train his magic.

With a smirk, she ran across the expanding room and charged a group of Leyaks that were doing some sort of worshipping ritual or dance. Pre-emptive Strike! The small diminutive weird freaks never saw it coming as Lightning blaze through the seven little monsters with sword slashes. And then a Thundara spell was used that juggled the group into the air. He launches another Thundara, adding damage to their health. Minor damage inflicted as they all crash to the ground. Here he picks them all off one by one, being careful to dodge their Aero spells. Deprotect spells were helpful until the final one was eliminated with a Flamestrike.

Lightning healed himself and then looks to see an Ectopudding sloshing along the water's edge. Debating for a short bit whether or not to test himself, he decides to challenge it with a Pre-emptive Strike when he was sure it didn't detect his presence. The thing was as he remembered the first time he, Vanille, and Fang fought (and defeated) it when helping the remains of the Cie'th Stone. The stretching arms of the Ectopudding and immunity to water were tough. However Lightning soon eliminated the Ectopudding.

Three Gorgonopsid per battle were a breeze to eliminate albeit with minor difficulty of their breath attacks. But Lightning was quickly dispatching them, and unlocking second tiers of his other elemental spells. The teen stayed clear from the Behemoth King battling its mortal enemy, and the larger versions of the Gorgonopsid. Around an hour of battling, Lightning finally decides to take a break and left the ROR, the magical room resetting to its default form.

=0=0=0=

Lupin was back from his temporary sick leave. He told the class the two rolls for the essay on werewolves were not necessary and everyone but Hermione cheered they had to not turn in incomplete homework assignments for Snape (Lightning just gave an indifferent shrug). Lightning still turned his in regardless.

=0=0=0=

December is here once again and the holiday spirits are high despite the Dementors having a temporary home at the school (away from the students, of course). Christmas was upon them, and teachers had begun to decorate the castle. Many students began to discuss their holiday plans, and Lightning was surprised that both Ron and Hermione were staying at Hogwarts. They said it was to keep him company; it was thoughtful however Lightning would have been fine on his own regardless. There was another Hogsmeade trip planned, to everyone's joy. Well, except Lightning. But he never cared about it. That only means time by himself to work on homework, or do some quick training in the ROR.

But as Saturday went on like any other day, and Lightning saw Ron and Hermione off, he turns back and re-enters the castle, content to get out of the cold. Wearing clothes that were suitable for warmer days and not winter was a bad idea (even with a charmed school robe to keep you warm and a small jar filled with bluebell flames). As Lightning walked past several ghosts that were passionately singing various Christmas songs, he heard his name being called.

"Harry," a whisper echoes.

He turns around and sees no one.

"Over here."

He blinks and walks over to the source, where an entrance of sorts is revealed. Inside was Fred and George Weasley.

"Follow us."

Lightning was wondering what they want, but with caution he obeyed.

_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present_

_THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

Really? Well, it happened. Fred and George took him to a classroom one secret corridor travel later on the once forbidden third corridor. Despite the twins giving him this map and telling him that he could "sneak out into Hogsmeade"; Lightning thought that he could use this map for other purposes.

In another universe Harry Potter would have snuck out using the Invisibility Cloak to be with his friends now that he had a way to get past border patrol AKA Filch, and then he would learn that the escaped convict, Sirius Black, betrayed his parents to Lord Voldemort and the Boy-Who-Lived would now vow to seek Sirius out and get revenge for the deaths of his parents or something along those lines whilst hiding under the table under the cloak. Lightning on the other hand went to finish his homework after a quick trip to the Hogwarts Kitchens. For now, the valuable piece of information was folded up small enough without tearing, and then put in his trunk's secret compartment.

If Fred and George were willing to part with such an interesting artifact of magical use, then who's to blame? Later on, Lightning learned that somehow Hagrid's Griffon, Buckbeak, was to be put on trial and likely executed for attacking a student. He had a feeling Malfoy was behind this bullcrap. On Christmas morning, gifts were exchanged between friends, sweaters are admired from Mrs. Weasley, candies shared, until one last gift was found addressed to Harry Potter. Lightning undid the paper wrapping and stared. Ron, Fred, George, and Neville were in shock.

"Bloody hell! A Firebolt!" Ron exclaims.

The golden registration number at the top of the handle, the smooth polish of the dark woods that made the construction of the sweeper, right down to the perfectly smooth, streamlined birch twigs that made up the tail. For Quidditch folks, such a broom would cost thousands of Galleons. It was to be admired, to be cherished. If Oliver was here that man would likely orgasm on the spot. And the sad thing is it would likely happen... scary, huh?

"Who sent it, Harry?" Fred and George ask in unison.

But Lightning can find no card or a name from its mysterious sender.

"No one. I can't find a name. This card only has my name addressed to me. No return address and such."

Lightning doesn't like Quidditch, but he tolerates the wizarding sport. Stupid Dobby and his attempted bludger plot...

"Blimey, who'd spend that much on you?" Neville questions aloud.

Lightning too was confused. Who WOULD do something like this? "Who knows...?"

The rest of the day was spent having fun with the gifts or just talking about stuff happening at home. Lightning tended to Snow and Serah, and Hedwig was also there since she missed being around her master. Around noon Lightning would disappear citing he wanted to just explore the castle since 1) He can't do any running outside in-case Dementors try to pull off the stunt they did when he attended that Quidditch match, and 2) He was bored staying in the common room.

However he was unaware that he was being followed by Fred and George. You see, lately the twins before giving up the map have been wondering where Lightning would go off to, and discover he would go inside the Room of Requirement. Following his signature on the map the dot would lead to the place the ROR was said to be located, and from there vanish. They were very curious. And from the rumors of Harry Potter being called Lightning, attacked by his Boggart who transformed into a strange muggle with a large sword, and apparently can create invisible explosions; they wanted to know what Harry Potter was up to.

"What do you think he's doing brother?"

"I have no clue, brother."

"This will be interesting. Ready to follow quickly?"

"Yup."

And the twins keep up with Lightning who was unaware of their presence. Hey, they were older than Lightning so they know of some spells that can hide their presence from other magicals. Lightning soon reached the ROR and paced, just thinking to himself a room where he can test fighting a golem construction of Caius. The Boggart had Lightning worried. Sure reincarnated he could regain his powers again but at the current age, he was STILL weak when compared to Caius. He no longer has any of his extra powers such as the blessing of magic from Etro and the armor and weapons. And of course, no summon crystal of Odin.

The twins run as fast as they could however the ROR's entrance closed before they could reach it. No one can now access it. Lightning meanwhile walks up into the center of the room, and everything around him melts away. The skies turn a shade of dull turquoise, and the ground transformed into dark purple sands with broken shards of crystal mixed in the silica. The sounds of crashing waves wash ashore the beaches, as black as the night and the foam were a shade of dark grays. There were large buildings in the distance, all grays and whites like the cleanliness of a hospital, and traces of green here and there. This was Valhalla.

Lightning draws his weapon as a golem reconstruction of Caius appeared, smiling and yielding his large sword. Lightning immediately attacked, swaying his free hand in front of him. The Fira spell explodes but the man dodges expertly. Lightning charges forward and their blades contact. A vicious duel of swordsmanship is exchanged for a good five minutes until Lightning was kicked into the air and balls of black orbs strike him as he fell back to the sandy ground. Kicking quickly to his feet, Lightning glowed briefly before he casts Shell and Protect, then return to attacking physically. The battle was long and lasted at least eight minutes when Lightning landed the death blow on the fake Caius. Lightning was content with his duel with the fake Caius (on a low difficulty setting). Still he was pretty beat. He left the room, and eventually the room had reverted back to normal but after healing himself to not look "out of place" with his "mystery injuries". Upon returning to Gryffindor Tower, he heard an argument going on.

"Uh, what's going on?"

"Harry! Hermione took your Firebolt to Professor McGonagall! She told the professor that it could have been jinxed!" Ron yells, glaring at Hermione.

"For the last time, it may have been something from Sirius Black getting revenge with a jinxed broom! Professor McGonagall agreed with me and was going to strip it down to check for any curses and jinxes," Hermione spoke with conviction of her choice.

"... Well I'm not much of a Quidditch fan after the bludger incident last year so... I'll likely just put it away once the professors are done doing... well, whatever you do with a possible cursed broom that may kill me or whatever."

"WHAT?" Ron yells, aghast.

Hermione beamed, as if proud that she HAD done the right thing.

All Lightning cared about is just getting through the school year without something crazy happening.

"Cursed bludgers, spinning heel kick. Remember? Besides, Oliver obsesses over a game. It's not like if he doesn't win that cup he'll commit suicide. If he does, then he's an idiot." If Lightning ever wore glasses, he would make a sly readjustment Uryū Ishida-style. But since Lightning has perfect eye vision, he never has to wear glasses like his father James did as a kid.

=0=0=0=

There was an attempt on Professor Lupin on learning how Lightning knew how to perform the Patronas Charm. When learned it was on pure luck and a chance, the man decided to help Lightning properly cast it better and without falling unconscious from magical exhaustion. A Boggart was used and Lightning brought up convictions about this. But somehow Dumbledore did something to this Boggart and all that came out was a Dementor version. The "remedial classes" weren't really necessary in the end. Lightning can cast the Patronas well. However for some reason instead of Odin, out popped a stag.

=0=0=0=

In January, Slytherin beats Ravenclaw in their Quidditch match that helps Gryiffindor's chances of getting the Quidditch Cup as long as they don't lose in their own match against Ravenclaw. Lightning wasn't a player and by February the Firebolt was returned. Oliver did find out and begged him to join. Again he refused. The broom ends up collecting dust in his school trunk. Crookshanks was blamed for a crime involving Scabbers because ginger fur and blood was found. Ron and Hermione were still fighting by Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. The rest of the month was pretty unproductive. March, Cho Chang beat Gryffindor by getting the Snitch when she found it despite Gryffindor having 200 points ahead of Ravenclaw's 50.

Later that night, Sirius had somehow broken into Gryffindor Tower. Everyone thinks it was a nightmare, but the curtains were ripped up by a dagger. And the replacement portrait for the Fat Lady, Sir Cadogan admits he let Sirius Black into the tower as he had the password, which Neville Longbottom had written down and misplaced. Another search of the castle takes place, but Black evades discovery yet again which was a bit frustrating for the adults. The Fat Lady resumes her duty guarding Gryffindor Tower on the condition her portrait is to be guarded. Neville on the other hand was stripped of visitation rights to Hogsmeade for the rest of the school year, and his house mates forbidden to tell him the password as punishment.

Neville felt really bad about everything. But Lightning told the boy that people make mistakes. Everyone would make mistakes now and then and it what makes them human. He then told Neville that he just has to learn from this experience, and learn to overcome it. That got the boy to smile again. What a great friend Lightning can be, huh?

Remember the whole Buckbeak thing? Well Hermione decided to help Hagrid prepare a defense but somehow, the trial was lost and she, Ron, and Lightning felt bad for the half-giant who was crying. The bird was to be executed. On their way to the castle Ron was spouting off about Malfoy being a mean evil git and Lightning didn't rebuttal on it: Malfoy was responsible somehow for getting Hagrid in trouble. But then he remembered something. He had saved Malfoy from getting killed.

"Wait a minute... I remember that I saved Malfoy from getting clawed to death by Buckbeak. Doesn't he owe me a Life Debt for that?"

Ron blinked, and then a huge grin came on his face.

"Blimey, mate! That's right!"

In the end Buckbeak was spared execution. Taking advantage of the Life Debt (but without making it become manipulative), Draco Malfoy was forced to tell the truth that he had Buckbeak get executed simply because he wanted to see something done about the beast. The trial decision was reversed. Buckbeak was safe from death (much to the Undertaker's loathing... I think you all know who I am talking about, and I don't mean Mark Calaway). For stirring up such pandemonium, Malfoy lost his house 300 points, and was to serve detention for 2 months. He was also banned from participating in Quidditch, meaning Slytherin was forced to forfeit without a spare Seeker.

=0=0=0=

Snape tried to get Lightning in trouble on the belief that he had some "illegal items" on his person, and was asked to empty his pockets. But all he had were spare Galleons, his muggle wallet with a saved up 28 pounds, and a blank parchment. For some reason Snape believed that he, Lightning, had a "map" that was missing from Filch's office for some time in his banned shelf.

Professor Lupin eventually came across this situation as the "map" spoke riddles in prank-type teasing. The professor saved Lightning by telling him lunch was being served and he was free to leave with his things. Snape scowls at his retreating back. Lupin merely says the map must be a Zonkos prank product and takes the "map" from Snape. Snape walks off in a huff.

Oh, and Ravenclaw was put back in the finals replacing Slytherin, and won the final Quidditch Match. They end up taking the Quidditch Cup over Gryffindor. Oliver was crying like a baby for losing the finals. Sheesh, it's just a game.

=0=0=0=

Finals exams were studied and prepared, when Trelawney spoke about Voldemort's servant who will return to him that night, and Voldemort will once again rise to full power. That scared Lightning a bit who left in a hurry before the woman's eyes cleared up and she returned to normal. Scabbers the Rat was finally found in Hagrid's Hut, but when they left after visiting the man who was glad Buckbeak would never have to be executed, the rat fled after biting Ron's hand. Reason was a large dog ("It's the Grim!" Ron exclaimed) that emerged from the Forbidden Forest and the rat freaked out, thus it bit the redhead. Ron was then dragged away by the same dog who was chasing the rat, caught it, and dragged into the Whomping Willow rat in hand.

He broke his leg during the attack.

"Harry! We have to save Ron from that dog!"

The Whomping Willow was back to life and was whipping the ground. Deterring them away. Why in the name of Etro would a dangerous killer tree be planted and allowed to grow near a school full of kids was a mystery. Lightning was glad he had Blazefire Saber on his person. Drawing it (shocking Hermione once again), Lightning fires a bullet that impacts the tree. He kept firing until it hit the knot and it froze. The entrance opened again and they quickly ran before it reanimated.

"You still have that thing?"

"Duh. I never went anywhere without it ever since the Dementor crap on the train," the pinkette answers.

"Why didn't you use your weird spells that I can never find in the books?"

"Because... just hurry up or we'll lose Ron."

The tunnel led to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. Ron was eventually found, and his leg was in a sick angle showing that he had broken it.

That's when things went crazy...

* * *

**I think in the next chapter, I'll expand into the encounter with Sirius and the following scenes. Of course since a little alterations were done, who knows if time travel may even be used in the story. Of course I have to close up the Time-Turner sub-plot that wasn't even mentioned more than once. But I got some plans for Year Four. It'll be very interesting...  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Lightning Always Strikes**

**Disclaimer:** The world of Harry Potter rightfully is copyrighted towards its publisher and creator J.K. Rowling, and also owned by Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros., and any other publishers that gave us the books and produced the movie adaptations. The thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy main series – Final Fantasy XIII – belongs solely to the owners of Square Enix.

**CAUTION:** Hermione will likely blow her top at some point into this chapter. You may snicker when this happens.

* * *

The Shrieking Shack was rumored to be haunted. Loud bangs and ghostly voices echo from inside, and no one were brave to even sneak inside. One such rumor was that ghouls gather in the place to make noise and scare any unlucky student who dares enter. The secret entrance that led into the Shrieking Shack opens and Lightning and Hermione enter a deprived home that looks like one hurricane-strength wind gust will blow it down into splinters.

"Really drafty in here," Lightning says aloud. "So, where are we at?"

Hermione went to an open window with torn curtains still hung by sticking charms. Down the hill through the woods was Hogsmeade.

"We're near Hogsmeade. Harry, I think this is the Shrieking Shack."

"Shrieking Shack, eh?"

The winds blew through, creating a drafty loud howl. Well, certainly gives the name's distinction.

"Harry, maybe we should go find a professor?"

"Why? The moment we do, they'll ask what I was doing in Hogsmeade when I never had my slip signed by a parent slash guardian."

"Oh..." Hermione whispered, remembering that little tidbit. Harry would get in a lot of trouble for going beyond the school's campus.

Lightning believed that something was lurking. Maybe shadowy ghouls but it was too early to tell. Nonetheless, Lightning folds his gunblade, and Hermione watches her friend take out his wand from some sort of slot in the weapon. With a flourish, the weapon's put away and then it seems to disappear.

"Disillusion Charm? But-"

"I taught myself. It's useful."

Hermione stared. "So you carry it everywhere?"

"Not everywhere. But sometimes it's kind of hard to sit properly."

A moan is heard. It was Ron. Lightning followed the source and soon came across a half-torn bedroom with a broken bed and dresser drawers; the wand is aimed everywhere seeking out dangers. The windows here still have their glass but some were shattered or with jagged holes. On the ground was Ron, holding his pet rat. And on the bed was Crookshanks, looking as if she was doing no wrong, tail swaying ever so often.

"Ron! You okay?" This cry of shock was from Hermione. Lightning was at his side carefully tending to the boy.

"Where is the dog?"

Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain. "Harry, it's a trap."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Not a dog," Ron grunts, trying not to aggravate his serious injury. "It's a trap Harry! The dog's an Animagus!"

Lightning's danger senses went off and he turned around at the sounding of a snap. Hermione gasped and quickly rushed and kneeled close to Ron, as Lightning stared. The man in the shadows closed the door behind them.

Sirius Black...

"So, you're the infamous Sirius Black. All year every single adult has been treating me with kid gloves for a reason I was unable to properly understand. It's all confusing, really..."

Lightning did not let his wand waver from the target, who just stands there, not concerned of the wand aimed at his head.

"Then I did some research when I was certain I wasn't being spied on by the adults. From limited information I acquired from outside sources before coming to Hogwarts, people are saying that you Sirius Black are a Death Eater, said to be the betrayer of my mother and father."

Sirius opened his mouth but Lightning's wand tip took on a soft glow.

"But then I heard something very shocking when I was heading back to Gryffindor Tower after I did some exercise routines in an abandoned classroom. I was going to sneak by the Staff Lounge when I heard voices speak my name. Turns out the teachers were having a meeting of sorts, or having brunch. I wasn't sure. But then I heard another voice and it turns out to be Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. Then I learned... you betrayed my parents to Voldemort."

Flinches inserted here.

"No. I would never," Sirius said.

"_Expelliarmus_!"

Lightning was disarmed, and his wand flew away. At this view, it looked like it was Sirius who may have performed the spell except he didn't speak the incantation. Another person enters the scene.

"Professor Lupin!" Hermione yelled.

Lightning was ready to reach into his back pocket and pull out his dagger. Professor Lupin then turns to Sirius.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed, as the event before them unfolded: Professor Lupin and Sirius Black embracing one another as if they were long-lost brothers, or family separated for so long and today they finally reunite. Remus lets go of Black and turns to her. She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild-eyed. "You- you-"

"Hermione-"

"You and him!"

"Hermione, calm down-"

"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you!"

"Hermione, listen to me, please," Lupin shouted, "I can explain!"

"You were an interesting professor. Unlike the previous two you knew what you were teaching," he said quietly to Lupin, "and all the time, I never thought that YOU of all people could be in on this shit storm of insanity."

"You're wrong," said Professor Lupin, "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now. Let me explain…"

"Harry! Don't listen to him!" Hermione yelled, running forward with her own wand pointed now. "He was helping Black all this time! Both times he got in the castle were because of him! He wants you dead as well! He's a bloody werewolf!"

"Of course he is," Lightning responds.

Stares all around. Hermione's mouth was the only one that was agape.

"W-what?"

"It's not hard to recognize the signs. Yellow eyes, haggard look when he returned after his temporary sick leave. Add to it Professor Snape's change in lessons, not to mention the goblet with the bluish smoke that contributes the Wolfsbane Potion. I knew all along he was a werewolf. I didn't see him as a danger since Headmaster Dumbledore willingly allowed him to host as DADA Professor this year. If he WAS dangerous, we would have had a different wizard or witch teaching us."

He then looks at Hermione.

"I do after all read on my spare time."

That sounded almost like an insult.

"You knew?" Hermione asked incredulously.

Lightning shrugged. "Oh yes," he admitted easily, "As I said, it was very obvious when one picks out the clues and piece them together." More silence. How come Lightning didn't end up in Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor?

"How long have you known I was a werewolf?"

"The first day Snape, as arrogant as he is, began the lessons on werewolves in DADA," was the answer. "I also left some hidden clues in my essay I turned in regardless when you came back."

"Huh..." Remus forced a laugh. "You certainly are much cleverer than I thought, Harry!"

"... Did you just refer to me as stupid?" Lightning questioned Remus.

"Uh, I didn't mean it as an insult..."

"Well, that's all good and everything but I do have a question: James had black hair. How come your hair is a girl's color? You look like your dear ol' dad but with pink hair!"

"Are you questioning my hair color?" This question is directed to Sirius.

"Uh..."

"I'm thirteen years old, and my hair has always been pink. It bled into this color when I was kid and I never once cared that people STILL give me weird looks for being the only guy in all of Europe with PINK hair. Frankly I don't understand WHY my hair turned pink, but I don't care. I can't imagine my life if I was being compared to my dead father if I had black hair, or maybe having my mum's red hair. In fact ever since I went to Diagon Alley in 1991 I was accosted by lots of adults clamoring to meet me as soon as my stupid scar was seen, and all of them questioning why I had pink hair. I heard some wondering why I look like my father but with pink hair."

Partial lie however. Lightning KNEW the reason for the hair color change. Reincarnation and everything, however he won't tell them. But she wasn't lying about her day going into Diagon Alley for the very first time since getting that Hogwarts letter... it was a bloody nightmare as people left and right tried to shake his hand and pleaded for good luck, among other celebrity-styled mugging.

"And of course, I'm going to experience puberty soon since I'm a teenager or maybe I'm already going THROUGH puberty. I'm just glad I wasn't born a girl. I'd hate to become a woman by experiencing her first period or Etro forbid going through PMS."

Sirius, Remus, and yes, even Snape (who was disillusioned and in hiding) shivered. Horrid memories surfaced in the men's minds of a Lily Evans being a terror when she was hormonal and on her period. Hermione just stared at Harry with a strange look on her face. It was a cross of between shock, awe, and a strange look as if emotionally expressing what Harry just said was plain bizarre when PMS was mentioned. And Ron's face was a puce pale-like shade. I think he never wanted to hear woman troubles spoken by a bloke. For Lightning, being a guy may have been weird, but she was no longer a woman in this reincarnated life. So, no more periods! They suck majorly.

"And I'm likely to have pink pubic hair since my hair is all natural."

"Can we please talk about something else?" pleaded Hermione, blushing and embarrassed.

"Maybe he's more like Lily than James," Sirius whispers to Remus.

That sounds like a reasonable plausibility in Remus's mind. Hell when he saw Harry ever since James and Lily went into hiding, he was shocked to see the boy with pink hair. He believed it was a color changing charm or something, but when he checked when the teen wasn't looking, nothing happened.

"Alright then. Are you helping Sirius Black?"

"No," Remus answers.

"How did you know where we were?" Lightning asks again.

"The Marauder's Map, Harry. You see, I was in my office examining it, and-"

"You know how to work it?" Lightning interrupts, looking at the man suspiciously.

Remus scoffs, as if told he was the Queen of England in a past life. "Of course I know how to work it! I helped write it. I'm Moony, after all... That was my friends' nickname for me at school."

"Moony?" Lightning whispered, as his eyes widen a bit. An old memory surfaced, a much younger him, calling out to a "woony" while in the arms of his loving young mother.

"The important thing here, Harry; I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid because of his Hippogriff. And I was right, wasn't I?"

He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet.

"I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."

"What? No. There was no one else," Lightning told the man.

"I couldn't believe my eyes though," Lupin whispers, still pacing, and having ignored the interruption, "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. I checked it again, and the same results kept glaring at me. I mean, how could he be with you?"

"Who? Who was with us?" Lightning demanded.

Remus went into a short story about his childhood, and how Lightning's father was friends with two other boys. He was included into the mix when they discovered his curse as a werewolf, when he was bitten and infected by a dangerous mad man named Fenrir Greyback. The man spoke of how James had the great idea for all three of them to become Animagus when they started getting suspicious of his monthly disappearances, and learned of said curse.

His father apparently was a stag, Sirius was a large black dog mistaken as a grim, and the third member of the group was Peter Pettigrew, a person who by Lightning's investigations was a man Sirius Black was said to have murdered along with thirteen muggles. As Animagus, the three boys when Remus was under the effects of the full moon would spend their time with him, and it had a calming effect on the wolf's mind, being around friends, being part of a pack that cared for his well being.

"I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, worked out the truth. They didn't desert me at all. When they became Animagi, I was... I was no longer alone. It took three years but in fifth year they succeeded and from then on, they hung out with me during my little furry problems. Peter was the smallest of us so he touched the knot on the Whomping Willow that freezes it, giving them the time to sneak into the tunnel and as animals meet me here in my temporary room during my full moon days."

"Hurry up, Remus," Black growled, eyes trained on the rat, hunger in his eyes.

"Yes, I'm getting there," Lupin said absentmindedly, "well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. We soon were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."

Lightning stared again. Padfoot.

"Padfoot?"

Sirius and Remus look at Harry, who... was getting misty-eyed.

"I remember... I was in my mother's arms. She was holding me with such love a mother could hold for her child. She had the warmest of smiles on her face. There were two men... with father. I called out... Padfoot and Moony..."

_"He's going to be so handsome when he's older. I bet he'll have girls clinging to him."_

_"As long as he's not following in your horrid tradition," said Lily, nuzzling her nose against baby Harry. Said infant coos cutely._

_Sirius gasps, making a dramatic cling to his chest. "Horrid! Why Lily-flower! How could you accuse us of being corruptive to little Prongs?"_

_A sigh came from Remus. "Sirius, you and James went on a wild driving spree across the countryside of Oxford on that crazy motorbike you magicked."_

_"And I still remember the tongue-lashing she gave us, Padfoot," James said, walking into the study with some freshly-made black tea._

_"You brought our son with you boys," she growled, "I had the right to hex you both into next year."_

_Sirius giggles unmanly-like. "You got couched for a month."_

_"And she magic poked you up your arse, Padfoot."_

_Remus laughs. "Ouch!"_

_"Prongs!" the man whimpered, not wanting to remember that punishment. He went through the kitchen wall and landed in the pool of Potter Manor. And the horrifying thing was Lily had somehow coated magic onto her two index fingers as her hands were clasped together and "poked him hard". Yeah, she Sennen Goroshi'd Sirius Black..._

_"Pahfoo! Woony!" cried infant Harry, saying his first words._

_It was silent in the room, as all adults stare at the giggling baby._

_"My son spoke!" James cries manly tears._

Lightning had tears running down his face, as the memory fades to the back of his mind.

"Padfoot... Moony... those were my first words I ever spoke," he says softly.

Sirius and Remus were shocked that Harry could remember that far back.

"Dad named you two my godfathers..." Then he looks to Sirius, a teary smile displayed. "Mum magic poked you in the arse."

Remus bursts out laughing.

"Out of everything, he has to remember that," Sirius whimpered, blushing.

"She called it her _Mother's Technique of Mortal Peril: One Thousand Years of Pain_," Remus continues to laugh.

"I had to sit on a padded seat for the next four weeks," Sirius grumbles.

"What the bloody fuck is going on?" Hermione interrupted.

Now Ron was staring at the girl in shock. Hey, Hermione never swore in her life... until now. Even Lightning glanced at the supposedly good-girl scholar with wide eyes, wiping his tears away.

"Wow, it's always the smart ones with the nasty tempers," Sirius whispers. Remus nodded.

Suddenly a jet of light shoot out and disarm Remus. Out from the darkness is Professor Snape. And he also has Lightning's earlier disarmed wand.

"Severus!" Remus shouted.

"No... I don't want you to even move, Lupin," the professor says smoothly as he walks into the room. He then looks to Lightning. "You are in a lot of trouble, Potter. You and your friends..."

The glare casted upon the three thirteen year olds, the Slytherin Head of House turns his attention back to the adults.

"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he questions, eyes glittering. "I've been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did. But just as I was about to leave I noticed something out-of-place. Lying on your desk was a _certain map_ and one glance at it told me all I needed to know." The smile he displays was anything but friendly. "I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."

"Severus, listen to me-" Lupin began, but Snape overrode him.

"Tut, tut, Lupin. I've told the headmaster again and again, that you were helping your old friend Black into the castle, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout."

"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently, being very cautious of the man's wand aimed at his head. "You haven't heard everything. I can explain; Sirius is not here to kill Harry!"

"I don't care. Regardless it's two more for Azkaban tonight," said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this. He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... a tame werewolf. How naïve."

"You fool," said Lupin softly, "is this damn schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"

BANG!

Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape's wand, twisting themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but the wily man pointed his wand straight between the escapee's eyes.

"Give me a reason. Give me a reason to do it, Black, and I swear I will kill you..."

Sirius froze, eyes glaring with uttermost loathing.

Hermione took a hesitant step forward. "Professor... It wouldn't hurt to hear what they have to say..."

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat, "You, Potter, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."

"But professor! If there was a mistake-"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU BLOODY STUPID GIRL!" Professor Snape shouted, looking quite deranged in his outburst, "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Some sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black's face. Hermione fell silent, fearful of the man's rage.

"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed at Sirius Black, leaning close with his eyes etched with madness. He never noticed Lightning stealthily make a move. "I think I will find it most pleasurable to see the two of you get devoured by the Dementors as the suck your souls away, forever ending your lives. Maybe I will be rewarded well for the capture of the dangerous criminal escapee and his werewolf companion."

CRACK!

Lightning was behind Professor Snape, and in his hand was Blazefire Saber, the non-sharp side of the weapon used to rather violently assault the man with. It was one blow and he was out cold in a collapsing heap on the dusty floor. It was rather comical the looks he received.

"HARRY!" Hermione yelled. "YOU ATTACKED A TEACHER!"

Lightning re-holsters the gunblade, and takes back his wand. "It was worth it, Hermione. Frankly, I want to know the whole truth. I want to know EVERYTHING that is going on."

Walking over to Remus, he pulls out his dagger and cuts the ropes, freeing the man.

"Now... start talking."

"The rat, Harry. It was the rat I was after, not you. I only wanted to protect you," Sirius pleaded to the pinkette.

The rat, huh? Lightning glances to the only "rat" which was in Ron's hands. Seeing this, Ron held onto Scabbers tightly.

"Harry, mate! No! Scabbers done nothing! He's insane! Sirius Black always was! Don't listen to them!"

"Ron... I'm giving these men the benefit of the doubt. If they are telling the truth, then I want to see what they were speaking of. But if it's a lie, I'll personally kill them both."

And he glances at Sirius and Remus with a calculating gaze. They were shocked by his declaration. And by the looks of his eyes, they had a dark feeling he would back up his threat. That strange weapon he has in his hand wasn't something seen commonly in the muggle world.

"Now Ron... let Professor Lupin take your rat." He then looks to Lupin and Black. "And tell me what it is you are trying to prove."

Remus looks to Lightning, having taken the struggling rat. The rat looked like death was coming for it in cat form. "As I told you Harry, the Marauder's Map showed me the name of a person who I thought was dead for a long time."

"The rat, Harry... he's a fucking traitor! He was the Secret Keeper when your parents finally went into hiding during the first war with the Dark Lord, Harry. Everyone assumed it was me but I was the decoy. After all, who would suspect innocent cowardly Pettigrew? We should have seen it though. We should have known. He was a coward, and that bastard sold out his friends to the dark wanker. Just show them Remus! Harry! Please lend me your wand; I'll give it back, I promise..."

Lightning stared, before he willingly turned his wand to Sirius, much to the shouts of Ron and Hermione. Together, Remus and Sirius point their wands as the rat was tossed into the air. The spells struck the rat and before everybody's eyes, the rat transformed into a short balding fat man who had an ugly rat-faced visage; the term rat-faced really fits the picture here. Hermione scampered away and even Ron was backing up a bit despite the pain of his broken leg. It had hit the boy that all this time, the rat that was his pet before Percy's was really a man... a man who slept in his pockets for so long...

As the exposed traitor was looking up, the sharp point of Lightning's gunblade poked his nose. Behind him were two wands aimed.

"So... you are Peter Pettigrew?"

"H-Harry? Your eyes... they're j-just like your m-mums," the man stuttered in a panic, grabbing onto him frantically. He was kicked away by Lightning and had hit the drawer near the wall.

Sirius was seething. "Peter Pettigrew, you disgusting rat! You sold out your friends to You-Know-Who!"

"I had no choice! He was powerful!" The rat man wailed pathetically. "He had power! No one couldn't defeat him, Sirius, Remus," the man continued to cry. "And he captured me when I was running through downtown London. I-I couldn't die. I didn't want to die!"

"You should have died! You should have given your life protecting your friends! James and Lily treated you as part of the family! You betrayed them, Peter!" Remus shouted.

The man cried, looking very pathetic. Lightning was disgusted at this man's antics.

"Why my father ever saw you as a friend, as a brother... I will never know or see reason. All I know is that because of you... my father died protecting us, and then he cruelly ripped the life from my mother right in front of me before trying to kill me..."

The words "but failed" was not said, but everyone knew they were mentioned in passing thought due to the stories of the Boy-Who-Lived.

"You should die for this, Pettigrew. Only then will James and Lily be avenged for your traitorous actions," Sirius growls.

"No."

Sirius and Remus now look to their best friend's son.

"No? What do you mean no? I must have my revenge, Harry! Don't you see?" Sirius shouted.

"Then how will you prove your innocence?" Lightning answers. "This bastard has been alive all this time, right? He betrayed my family, and betrayed you and Remus. You didn't cause the explosion, this man did, right?"

Sirius said nothing. Harry was right. When James and Lily were murdered, Harry was handed to Hagrid who helped Dumbledore get the boy to safety. In anger he hunted down Wormtail to get revenge, but then was struck down by an explosion that killed the muggles. Then he found himself in Azkaban...

"Somehow, mum and dad would not want you to throw away your life in this way. No... He will live."

Peter looked in surprise, as more tears fell. He was saved!

"Harry! You're a saint!" The man said.

KICK!

Peter's head smashes through the damaged dresser.

"No... I'm not your angel of mercy. I'm going to take you to the proper authorities, and then my godfather will be cleared of the crimes he never did. Then I can leave the Dursleys and live with the ones who were tasked to raise me should my parents die..."

Sirius and Remus were smiling tearfully. Peter crawled away, but Lightning was faster as he kicked the man again, this time knocking him out cold as his body flew into the air. With a jumping kick, Lightning sent Peter Pettigrew flying and crashing through the door. That was insult to injury.

"Would you two know anything about splinting? Ron's leg is broken and would require expert medical attention until we get to the castle with our prisoner... oh and Professor Snape," Lightning says.

Remus nods. "Yeah I do. I once had a girlfriend who was a trained mediwitch so I learned a bit on medical healing."

Remus went to work constructing a splint for Ron's leg. Sirius levitated Snape's body with Harry's wand while Lightning had taken out a collar and connected it around Peter's neck.

"Harry, what is that?"

"Magical collar for cats, dogs, ferrets, and any type of four-legged mammal or reptile. It's spelled so that it enlarges as the wearer grows. But this one is different. I found this in Knockturn Alley and it works as a prisoner-type collar."

Gasps all around.

"Harry! That's a place for dangerous wizards," Hermione chastised.

"And? Hearing that a deranged killer who was never given the chance to prove his innocence was after me, I sought for some... protection. On the off-chance I ever came across Sirius Black I would use this, and with some wand gestures shrink it until his air supply was cut off. I think Peter will find out that it's hard to breathe even if he tries to escape by becoming a rat again."

=0=0=0=

The collar was ingenious. Snape woke up and Lightning had threatened the man that he would kill him if he ever did something stupid. With Peter exposed the man reluctantly (very reluctantly) followed orders. But then everyone forgot about the full moon. As a result when the moon's rays shined through the parting clouds, Hermione and Ron were subject to the transformation of a werewolf. Remus never had drunk his Wolfsbane potion so without it... he was in a sense feral.

As Remus fully transformed and howled wildly, a revived (and injured) Peter took this chance to escape by transforming into a rat. However he forgot he was collared. Lightning saw this and cast the spell for the collar to tighten and choke the rat until he transformed, making it even tighter. Sirius transformed into his Animagus form and both dog and wolf fought one another as Snape did what all professors are to do: protect your endangered students. Hey, Snape wasn't all THAT much an evil git. He was an asshole sometimes, yes, but he has his moments of shining knight-status.

"Hermione, keep my wand! If Wormtail tries to run again, cut off his air until he gets the idea not to run!"

Hermione caught the wand as Lightning did something very stupid: he charged into battle against Snape's yells of, "POTTER! GET YOUR ARSE BACK HERE!"

Padfoot yelped in pain as Moony savagely tackled the dog away, only to howl painfully when a blast of ice impacts his side. Snape recalled Potter's fancy footwork against the troll. Oh yes, he wondered what James and Lily's son was capable of doing with that strange weapon. A powered wandless Glacius spell was something to be admired and in awe of. Ron was gaping. Hermione was keeping focus on the prisoner who tried to escape and kept failing.

"Moony!" Lightning shouted with his gunblade ready.

The wolf growls and charges Lightning but the pinkette teenager moved fast. He had earlier cast Haste before using Blizzard. So while the werewolf was fast, Lightning was on even speed with the transformed man. He was holding back with the physical strikes however. He did not aim for lethal blows such as the neck. Fighting a werewolf during the full moon was paramount to suicide. If a werewolf under the full moon clawed you, you'd likely risk getting infected.

Lightning was keeping ahead of Moony as he kept aiming for non-lethal areas. Moony yelps again when Padfoot jumped from behind and bit down on the back. The furry creatures struggled with one another allowing Lightning time to shift to Saboteur role.

"Padfoot! At my side fast!"

Padfoot was shaken off and dodged around the clawing strikes of the wolf, rushing to his godson's side with growls aimed at Moony, threatening the man who was under the influence of the werewolf virus.

"Imperil!" Lightning shouts, hand pointed at Moony.

A purplish flash of light shatters around Moony who howls with a wounded growl, as Lightning sprinted forward casting Deshell, lowering his magical resistance. Ignoring the fact he was revealing his l'Cie magic to outsiders, shifting back to Ravager Lightning leaps up into the air and casts a Thunder spell, shocking the werewolf. Lightning winced each time Moony cries in pain but the man was feral; without the Wolfsbane Potion he was a danger to innocent people. He fell with a stomping kick on the wolf's chest sending it barreling back. With a crouch, Lightning slices the gunblade before him and looks up, his eyes etched with a warrior's gaze.

"I don't want to hurt you Moony, but right now you are a danger because you haven't taken your potion. I will knock you unconscious."

Snapping the blade into the locked position, Lightning charges forward. Hermione gasped as Harry performed the same move he used on the troll saving her life in 1991. Lightning moved around confusing the wolf as it tries to swipe its target and would miss. Moony gets struck with heavy blows and kicks from Lightning's special move, with magic being used as physical energy conjuration shots. But the shocker was near the end ducking over a sweeping arm, Moony was launched right into the air from the uppercut attack. With a thrum of magic Lightning boosts himself right into the air and higher than Moony's airborne form. With a battle cry, he swings the weapon down clubbing Moony. The man will surely have a headache when the moon goes away and he returns to normal, but the force was enough to render the werewolf unconscious.

Padfoot trots up warily, no doubt surprised at what he had just witnessed. Moony was out cold, injured, but will likely survive because of his werewolf status. Transforming back to human, Sirius was gaping at Harry.

"Harry... how in the bloody hell did you do all that? I've never seen magic like that before."

"... It's something I've been able to do. No one else can use the magic I have," he answers vaguely.

"... Okay... what about Moony?"

"Sirius, you need to hide. Those Dementors are still searching for you."

The man nods. "Yeah, you're right..."

Lightning hugs the man, who hugs him back. It's been so long since Sirius has wanted to do that.

"Do not worry... I'll do everything I can to get you a trial you likely never got."

"Thanks," Sirius whispers.

Sirius decided to flee, using Remus's wand to levitate the werewolf after casting a Lightening Charm on the body. Lightning returned to Hermione and the others, and casts a cold glare upon the panicking Wormtail.

"You, rat, will die soon. When Sirius is freed from the crimes he never did, I will be there at front row and watch you fry to death."

Wormtail peed himself.

"Potter, where are you going?" Snape yelled.

"To protect my godfather."

Off he runs, despite Hermione yelling at him. Snape growled, but he had to get Potter's friends back to the castle with their prisoner. He'd enjoy seeing Black and Lupin squirm, but seeing the magic display Potter did, he had a feeling it would be turned on him if he pissed the boy off. However, leading the two kids and Peter to the castle, Snape was thinking. Lily proved to be very adept at magic theory. She was very smart. A prodigy, almost...

If she had survived that horrible war with the Dark Lord, she could have revolutionized the Wizarding World with her discoveries and new theories of magic. He remembered at one time, Lily telling him about creating new magical charms and different spells.

... Was Harry more like his mother?

Was Harry much like Lily when it comes to magical theory? What he had seen points to yes, but it was too soon to make assumptions. He'd have to investigate... and pray that the stupid half-complete prophecy he overheard that faithful night was right (and the rest when Dumbledore protected him after Voldemort's death): the mysterious magic Harry Potter used was "The Power the Dark Lord Knows Not"...

* * *

**Interesting alternative, yes?  
**

**The next chapter will close up Year 3, and then we go into Year 4. And remember, it's not Harry Potter who gets forced into the Tri-Wizard Tournament.**


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